Did Trump Expose the D.C. Sham on Waste and Fraud?
On January 24, President Trump fired 17 inspector generals working for a wide array of federal agencies. Trump’s action jolted Washington because most of those officials could supposedly only be removed for cause — specific misconduct or other abuses. Trump also scorned the federal law requiring giving Congress 30-days notice before terminating such officials.
Some of the inspector generals that Trump axed had done good work exposing government abuses while others had defaulted to the lap dog mode. A White House official justified the firings: “These rogue, partisan bureaucrats who have weaponized the justice system against their political enemies are no longer fit or deserve to serve in their appointed positions.” The official said the firings will “make room for qualified individuals who will uphold the rule of law and protect Democracy.”
Maybe the White House wanted inspector generals who could bring bigger brooms to sweep evidence under rugs? The controversy that erupted over Trump’s firings largely ignored the long history of inspector generals either being wrongfully terminated or being worse than useless.
Politicians create facades to make citizens believe that government automatically guards against waste, fraud, and abuse. The purpose of inspector generals is to create the illusion of honest government — to make people think that oversight is going on. While inspector generals are routinely portrayed as paragons of integrity, many are appointed by the chief of the federal agency they oversee. Their jobs and budgets depend directly on the political appointees they are supposed to investigate, and they grovel accordingly.
Bush and the IGs
The George W. Bush administration throttled inspector generals who exposed too much dirt. After CIA Inspector General John Helgerson investigated whether CIA officials were guilty of torture, CIA director Michael Hayden
responded by launching an investigation of the IG. Former CIA inspector general Frederick Hitz commented that Hayden’s investigation would be seen as an effort to sway the IG “to call off the dogs…. The rank and file will become aware of it, and it will undercut the inspector general’s ability to get the truth from them.”
Homeland Security Department Inspector General Clark Kent Irvin was pressured to downplay his findings of the failures of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and federal terrorist watch lists. But elbowing the IG failed to prevent the TSA from becoming a laughingstock and a public menace.
Federal agencies responsible for exposing abuses were neutered. During the Bush administration, the amount of Pentagon contracting skyrocketing thanks to Bush’s wars. At the same time, the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), the Pentagon’s front line watchdog against fraud and abuse, was gutted. The Government Accountability Office condemned the DCAA in 2008 for becoming a lapdog for military contractors. Auditors were threatened with retaliation if they did not rescind findings critical of contractors. Supervisors tampered with audit findings to exonerate companies. Reports revealing how contractors did shoddy work or overcharged the government were buried.
President Bush repeatedly revealed in signing statements that he viewed anticorruption efforts as a violation of his prerogative. After Congress created an inspector general in late 2003 to look into the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Bush decreed:
The CPA IG shall refrain from initia
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
