\n\nBut this idea that bureaucrats -- very broadly defined -- can become their own class bent on protecting their interests at the expense of the public seems not only plausible but obviously true.
\nThe evidence is everywhere. Every day it seems there\u00e2\u0080\u0099s another story about teachers\u00e2\u0080\u0099 unions using their stranglehold on public schools to reward themselves at the expense of children. School-choice programs and even public charter schools are under vicious attack, not because they are bad at educating children but because they\u00e2\u0080\u0099re good at it. Specifically, they are good at it because they don\u00e2\u0080\u0099t have to abide by rules aimed at protecting government workers at the expense of students.
\nThe Veterans Affairs scandal can be boiled down to the fact that VA employees are the agency\u00e2\u0080\u0099s most important constituency. The Phoenix VA health-care system created secret waiting lists where patients languished and even died, while the administrator paid out almost $10 million in bonuses to VA employees over the last three years.
\nWorking for the federal government simply isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t like working for the private sector. Government employees are essentially unfireable.
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See also the IRS. Via Of the Bureaucrats, by the Bureaucrats, for the Bureaucrats | National Review Online.
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