So, Politics

My mother was a low-level Democratic Party volunteer.  I'm not sure where she got her original party affiliation, but by the 60's her allegiance was solid.  Raised Catholic, she would have been excited about Kennedy's nomination; and she always supported civil rights.  When we cleaned out the house after her death, she'd kept the Party paraphernalia, like the fake straw hat she wore to greet LBJ as a "Johnson Girl".  My dad probably just voted the way my mom told him to; I never heard him discuss politics.  But he was in a union.

I was confirmed as a liberal during the Vietnam War and the civil rights struggles.  We lived in a fairly conservative area (York, PA, which has had a Republican Congressman for all but two years of my life).  De facto segregation kept my schools all white despite a substantial black section in York proper (we were in West York) that rioted after the MLK assassination and again a year later.  (Two deaths--that's a wild story in itself.  Both murders were solved three decades later--and the then-mayor of York was one of those charged.)  I graduated high school in 1970, so the 60s were definitely formative years for me politically.  I was one of two to wear a black armband to school on Moratorium Day.  (I had to put it on after I left the house--my dad did not approve of protests of any sort.)

College provided an environment in which my opinions were actually the majority ones.  Student protestors occupied administrative buildings, classes were shut down with the approval of the professors, and we blockaded the Institute for Defense Analysis compound just a few blocks from the campus.  I learned some economics and history, and thought myself a socialist.  Still, it was the war that animated most of us, and I got a lesson in realpolitik when Nixon ended the draft and war protests collapsed.  Well, it was winding down by then anyway, and it was clear that the US lost.  The division over Vietnam lasted a long time.  A decade later--more--some were arguing that it was not a mistake to have prosecuted that war.  Echoes of McNamara and Kissinger are audible in the war cries of today's Republican candidates.  There are people who are incapable of learning.

Like most people, my politics have moderated over the years.  Communism was a failure; capitalism is a mighty economic engine, albeit one that needs regulation and steering.  I'm a believer in the necessity for an active government, but am intolerant of fraud and incompetence in it.  I'll elaborate on some of the following in the future, but here's a brief rundown of where I stand on some hot button issues:

-  I'm pro-choice, but respect the pro-life position.  I think Roe vs Wade was good policy, bad law, and disastrous politics.

-  I'm no isolationist, but lean very strongly against armed intervention.  It probably did more good than harm in Kosovo, and we didn't have a lot of options in Afghanistan.  But usually, sending in the Marines hasn't really been good for anybody.

-  Anything we can do to get closer to single-payer health care is something we should do.  It's absurd how much we pay as a nation for health care that is not as good as it is in many other countries.

-  The fight for equality is not over, but damn, we are advancing on all fronts.

-  I think every nation has the right and duty to control its borders, but I don't consider illegal immigration to be a problem.  I see some every day, and they are making the country better as far as I can tell.  The kids are as American as I am.

-  Raise the minimum wage already.

-  Republicans are engaging in a profoundly antidemocratic (and anti-Democratic) effort to restrict voting.  It's working.  We should have fewer election days and they should be holidays.  Legislative districts should be drawn by computer.  I'd love to see instant runoff voting.

-  If I had my way (I won't), handguns would be illegal.  We'd have thousands fewer deaths every year.

-  There are way too many people in jail.

-  Tax capital gains and dividends as ordinary income.  Restrict the homestead exemption on real property gains--it's ridiculously loose and generous now.

-  Institute a small financial transaction tax.  Shut down tax havens.

-  Get serious about eliminating nuclear weapons.

-  Push hard for real UN reform and support the UN strongly.  It's gotten so bad that no one even asks why the UN isn't all over Syria and other trouble spots.  No one really thinks they'd improve things.

That'll do for now.

I have never voted for a Republican in my life, and seeing the candidates that Party throws up lately makes me fairly certain I never will.  I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan, and am unconvinced that Sanders can win in the general (or that he'd be an effective President).  Despite his age, I'd sign on to Biden's candidacy in a minute.  It's pretty shameful that neither Party can dredge up a really good candidate.  But I don't see any Reps as good as any of the Dems in the hunt, so it's no contest.

My End Game at the IRS

I could not have scripted the retirement any better.  I'd told my management I'd be leaving at the end of calendar year 2011; they'd asked for that to justify promoting a replacement for me.  I meant it, too, more or less, figuring I'd quit before the Spring of 2012.  I stalled on putting in my paperwork; I was busy enough without that, and we had a trip planned to visit our daughter in Australia.  But IRS offered a buyout two days before my flight, so I scrambled to put together an application and submitted it on my last day before leaving.  It was approved the day I got back four weeks later, in early December.  That gave me not quite four weeks to wrap everything up, and I just made it.

Fortunately, I'd done all the groundwork in the previous months.  The team I led was trained, I had written detailed handbooks and desk procedures (I mean down to the mouse clicks), and had designed and created the simple database (MS SharePoint) that would house the change requests my team was responsible for.  I'd also finally won the argument (after four years and several tries) to set up a technical review board to assist the execs in their decisions on the change requests.  I facilitated the last executive board meeting, for old times' sake (I did it for years after I created it) and said goodbye to everyone--in a phone conference call, as these were always conducted.  When my boss asked me where my retirement party should be (half the section was in West Virginia, the other in DC), I told him they could have it wherever they liked, because I wasn't going to be there.  I always hated those things, and I was not about to be responsible for one myself.  I think he was secretly glad he didn't have to drive to DC himself.

I called in to the first meeting of the new tech review board (after I retired--boy did some people not like that) to make sure it really did work, and it went great.  The last time I asked, maybe 18 months after I left, everything was going well, and the stuff I wrote was still being used.  From a professional standpoint, I could not have been more satisfied with events.  Had I stayed, there were a few improvements I could have directed or made myself, but I outlined them to the team before leaving and if they want to make them, they can do it in a straightforward manner.

Socially, retirement changed nothing.  I have had work friends, good ones, but by the end I was not socializing with any coworkers.  I liked them and they acted as though they liked me, but we weren't really friends.  I had been working from home two days a week anyway, and even on the days I did go in, most days my interactions were almost all via email or telephone.  Most of my team (and my boss) worked in Martinsburg, WV, and the ones who worked in the same building (and my upper management chain) were three floors below and a long walk away.  My wife didn't retire for 2 years 9 months after I did, but honestly, I was never lonely.  I think I'm the sort of person who could function OK on a solo space mission lasting a very long time.

The best pre-retirement move I made was to quit drinking.  (That happened 19 months previously, after a bout of self-disgust finally gave me the impetus to confront my alcoholism in a meaningful way.)  Before then, I envisioned retirement as an endless succession of days sitting on my front porch sipping bourbon.  I'd have spent half my life plastered, and much of the rest hung over.  I kept some volunteer commitments pre-retirement figuring they'd help structure my post-retirement days, and they have.  I help administer a youth soccer league, and until last year I was a Democratic precinct captain.  I still volunteer for the Dems, and end up as the new captain's backup frequently.  I started reading with kids at the local elementary school last January and I'll keep that up.  Kids are a blast.

Financially, retirement didn't make much of a dent in our cash flow.  The guys I knew who retired before me told me that I'd be surprised by how little difference there'd be in my take home, and they were right.  The Civil Service Retirement System (discontinued for anyone entering the work force after 1985) was absurdly generous.  Six weeks shy of my 60th birthday, I exchanged my govt salary for a pension that was roughly 70% of what I was making.  But my salary had a 7% deduction for the retirement system, and I had another 10% taken out for a 401(k); those stopped.  Commuting costs were very low, but that went away too.  Plus, the cost of living increases for pensions always exceed those for salary; I had topped out at the highest experience level of a GS-14.  If I live another seven years or so, odds are that I'll be taking home more than what I'd be making had I stayed.  I can buy health insurance at the same rate as employees.  It's pretty decent, too, though I've been phenomenally lucky with my health.

So that's that for the IRS.  I have written a high-level summary of all the things I worked on in my 37+ years there, and some of the changes the work environment went through.  (The paragraph on cubicles alone is worth the price.)  If anyone wants to read it, they can ask me and I'll send a link.  It has some things in it that may be actionable, so it's not going to be posted here.

The Dawning of a New Error

I think I'm going to get more serious about this blogging thing.  While my web output is absurdly high, most of it is in responses to bulletin board posts, with some Facebook and other media responses thrown in.  It's all over the place.  Here, I can develop thoughts until they bulge with muscles and jump out of the screen and throttle idiocy worldwide.  That's the idea, anyway.  Besides, I never did replace LiveJournal when I dropped it, and maybe some of that will find its way into the blog too.  I definitely am not going to confine myself to just a few topics.

The end of an error

Retirement looms, and I'm feeling the urge to wrap up some of the things I'd like to get done before I leave:

I've given up on procurement reform. Despite the hopeful post on some welcome words from the Administration, it's apparent that this President isn't any more focused on this important issue than the last several. He and Congress will tussle over every dollar appropriated, but they won't lift a finger to improve the way those dollars are spent. That seems like work. It also might cut some of their pals out of lucrative contracts with too-fat profits. Yeah, I'm bitter. Email objections to management, letters to the Commissioner, Inspector General complaints--nothing worked to make our officials decide that following the Federal Acquisition Regulations was a good idea.

Slowly but surely, systemic process control is embedding itself into the way we do business. Boosted by jargon-spouting contractors and the widespread adoption by the private sector as well as government of the ITIL and CMMI standards and goals, we've set up change control boards and some of the disciplines that make them work. That's what I've been working on most of the last six to eight years, and it's functioning pretty well. That's not to say that the executives don't cut corners, but they're getting out of the habit of giving off the record orders to subordinates to make big changes to our systems and infrastructure. People ask for the work request and change request numbers before they do stuff. It's an improvement, even if there is substantial overhead involved. I'm making incremental improvements in the processes I'm responsible for running, and documenting them to a greater degree. I've also been assigned some new stuff that promises to improve the way we organize and document our core processes.

Management is a lost cause here. They make wacky decisions for reasons having little connection to getting work done. The most recent example is their pulling more than half my team and making a promise (yet to be irrevocably fulfilled) of slotting someone in behind me. I'm trying to do what I and two others were doing a month ago. So far, no disasters, but I'm one busy week away from disappointing a lot of people. Well, I do what I can, and don't worry about what I can't do. For sure, my management has no clue, despite my detailed reports, which they either don't read (my guess) or don't comprehend.

All over the agency, I hear people predicting a drop in the quantity and quality of work that will get done in the next few years. This is driven by the retirement of the last of the CSRSers. It's occurring at the same time as a budget crisis that prevents hiring replacements. That's too bad, because there are some good people in private industry who want to come in from the cold, but we aren't hiring. The slots that do open up (like mine) are being given to longtime employees who are being rewarded for their work, and their slots won't be filled. There's no new blood coming in. The old-timers have that infamous "institutional knowledge" (which is, I think, often overrated), and we often care about the agency and its mission, and of course contractors do not. I was talking to another long time employee yesterday and we both were surprised how well the agency is doing its job, but could see the strains and could identify the small number of key individuals who were keeping things humming. Well, no one is irreplaceable. What we do is too noticeable and too important to be allowed to deteriorate far. I think it will work out, but not without some embarrassment and struggles.

The doctor is in

The Obama Factor

Exciting new developments. I'm reproducing a couple of my own posts on the board I administer:

___________________________________________

It's not exciting to most people, but this is the best news I've heard out of the White House for decades. Obama apparently is taking the problem seriously and is proposing an appropriate response to the dreadful state that Federal contracting has reached.

Obama's directive would order Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to work with Cabinet and agency officials to draft new contracting rules by the end of September. Those new rules, officials said, would make it more difficult for contractors to bilk taxpayers and make some half-trillion dollars in federal contracts each year more accessible to independent contractors.

...Obama will say that his administration will stop outsourcing to private contractors many services that should be performed by government employees. He also pledged to open contracts to small businesses and eliminate "unnecessary" no-bid contracts that allow preferred contractors to take assignments even though they might not be the least expensive option.

I could tell you stories about outrageous giveaways to contractors that I hope would make you as angry as they made me. I've made myself a real nuisance at work on this, have reported especially bad acting to our Inspector General on a couple of occasions, and gone straight to the Commissioner on another. It had only a minor effect (I managed to force a few million dollars in savings, but tens of millions were left on the table for the pigs). I saw it happening in the early Reagan years (that one was a doozy--someone should have gone to prison) and it has only gotten more routine since.

In a nutshell, our Contracting Officers got lazy, our executives joined the revolving door culture pioneered by the Pentagon, and billions of dollars are simply being thrown at corporations that aren't giving full value (or sometimes any value). The Federal Acquisition Regulations are being ignored. All the right laws and procedures are on the books; what we need is for the boss to tell us to follow them instead of find a way around them. For the first time in my 34 year career, it looks as though we may have that boss. If something really good does happen out of this expression of good intentions, it will have positive ramifications for decades to come. This is the kind of reform that pays big permanent dividends across every agency.

Also:

For many years, the IRS has, at the insistence of the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush Administrations, run a series of pilot programs in which private collection agencies were given a (relatively) small number of accounts to collect on. Our union always fought it, but the political fix was in. Al Gore's "reinventing government" was, from my perspective, a thinly disguised push to contract out inherently governmental functions, which is one reason I was not enthusiastic about him as President. The Republicans were even worse. Even the most slanted analyses never showed that the private agencies were as cost-effective as employees, and they generated more complaints from taxpayers because they often were too aggressive. (The firms got a percentage of what they collected--you can imagine how they dealt with hardship cases.)

Today, I got the following message from the IRS Commissioner:

From: *Commissioner Shulman
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 8:44 AM
To: &&Employees All
Subject: Private Debt Collection

As I have conducted town hall meetings across the country, IRS employees have frequently asked me about the private debt collection program, which I know has received a lot of attention over the last several years.

Today, I want to let you know that we have decided not to renew the private debt collection contracts with two private collection agencies. I arrived at this decision for several reasons.

First, IRS employees are in the best position to handle this collection work. We have conducted a cost-effectiveness study of the private debt collection program. The study -- supported by an independent review -- showed that it is reasonable to conclude that when working similar inventory, collection efforts are more cost-effective using our own employees rather than outside contractors.

In addition, in these challenging economic times, I have asked all IRS employees to go the extra mile to help financially distressed taxpayers. IRS employees have a much wider range of options available to them to resolve difficult collection cases. We will see more of these tough collection situations in the months ahead, and our employees are the best-positioned to work with people and resolve these issues in a fair, equitable manner.

Finally, Congress is currently considering the Fiscal Year 2009 budget, which would provide the IRS with significant new funding for enforcement initiatives. I'll be talking to you in more detail soon about this. For now, I think it's important to note that these new potential hires will give the IRS more flexibility to make assignments based on the areas of greatest need -- rather than filtering limited cases through contractor resources.

Finally, thanks again for your continued efforts and dedication for the IRS and the nation's taxpayers

-Doug Shulman

There is absolutely no way this could have happened had the word not come down from Obama and Geithner to kill this initiative. It'll piss off the contractors, and apparently they don't call this tune anymore. It's good news for everyone who cares about good government and basic fairness towards both the taxpayers and government employees. From my perspective in the trenches of the Federal Govt, Change Has Come. And lo, it is good.

Twenty Minutes!

Looking over the previous posts made me realize that I haven't updated the blog on Configuration Management stuff. That's going great. The board I helped start is now the heart of the decisionmaking process in my organization. That "Big Boss" I referred to was promoted, and her replacement takes his job more seriously--he actually attends. After the first year, I was replaced as secretariat, which was fine with me. I've since helped start a "Configuration Management Library" that serves as the CM database for our documents. It's a start. I'm heartened by events in this area, not just in my organization but in the IRS as a whole. We're making progress.

Over Two Years?!?

I'm not sure what I was thinking to start this blog. It probably involved improving government procurement practices. What a moron I can be! I had to go back to TIGTA recently with a complaint about the very same contract I went to them about seven years ago. Three months later, all I got from TIGTA was a form email acknowledging they got my complaint. Essentially, we paid over $3M more than any sane honest customer would pay for the right to use some software on a slightly bigger mainframe. I laid it on the line with my bosses, told them I was going to report it if they did it, and they went ahead anyway. They were more scared of their executives than they were of getting rapped on the knuckles in an investigation they weren't sure was going to be conducted. So far, their judgment has been vindicated.

I could have retired a year and a half ago. I'm hanging on until my kids finish college, I get a few more things done on the job, and I can make a positive difference on procurement policy. I may be working until I drop dead, an event that some in management would celebrate. I'm sick of those people...what is so great about rising in the ranks of govt if all you're going to do is bully people and make bad decisions? Then they scheme to land a job with one of the vendors they've been dealing with. It's not an easy sell, because most of them are worthless except as influence peddlers, and as soon as they walk out, they've lost their influence.

I'm not sure when the next post will be. But if an investigation results from my complaint, I'll let you know.