Helen Thomas

WASHINGTON -- What has President Bush got against a smooth-running federal agency that would make him want to gut it? I refer to the Social Security Administration, the venerable federal agency that Bush has vowed to topple, even though it has served the public very well since the 1930s, with some mid-course fixes along the way.

He desperately wants to privatize the system by permitting future beneficiaries to be able to voluntarily invest in the stock market. He claims Social Security funding is going to run out and he is concerned about the livelihood of future generations. His spokesman, Scott McClellan, says Bush sees his re-election as a mandate “to solve problems.” It appears he also sees it as a green light to create new problems where none exist.

If he weren't chasing phantoms, the president might be dealing with the real problems of today. These include the facts that millions of American families have no health insurance; the Head Start pre-school program is not fully funded; thousands of schools in this country are falling apart, and public housing is under-funded.

But such domestic problems seem too tough for his administration, which is more intent on making war in Iraq. He recently asked Congress for $80 billion more for the war in Iraq, on top of $200 billion already spent on the invasion and occupation.

Social Security is not the only government program in Bush's sights. He also is targeting the Civil Service System, which was created to allow Uncle Sam to hire on the basis of merit rather than on the basis of political patronage and nepotism.

The erosion of the Civil Service System -- now called the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) -- took off with the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which was given broad powers over its personnel in the name of national security. Bush plans to ask Congress to provide more government agencies with the same flexibility that DHS has in hiring and firing, pay, retirement benefits, employee appeals.

Bush loves the word “reform,” which is defined in the dictionary as change for the better. But it's hardly a reform if each department and agency is allowed to set its own personnel rules, as the president wants.

The Civil Service System, created under the Pendleton Act in 1883, was designed to wipe out the “spoils system” of government hiring on the basis of political favoritism. The name stemmed from the old adage “to the victor belongs the spoils.”

The new guidelines would leave hiring discretion up to “supervisors,” many of whom would be political appointees who may want to get rid of workers held over from past administrations. They could pave the way by giving bad evaluations of a worker's performance. Under rules establishing the DHS in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the collective bargaining rights of the department's workers have been severely curtailed, with little power to appeal to neutral arbitrators.

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, protests that the changes at the Homeland Security Department were designed to “remove employees rights” in a broader area than national security.

Chad Kolton, OPM spokesman, acknowledged that the new rules do have “some impact on collective bargaining.” But he said the old Civil Service System made it more difficult to recruit and retain employees with high skills. Meanwhile, private contractors are taking over many jobs formerly on the federal payroll.

Government workers have known better days. There was a time of great esprit de corps among federal workers who flocked to Washington during the Great Depression to help President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other legions of workers came to the nation's capital during World War II to serve in newly created agencies to help the war effort and postwar boom.

In the early 1960s, it was John F. Kennedy who articulated the importance of public service and made it the crowning glory of a career. His uplifting words about public service helped enlist the younger generation in the Peace Corps and other agencies devoted to the disadvantaged.

The country also has known better days when presidents cared about the general health and welfare and job worries of people. It would be a tremendous setback for the country if there were a chipping away of Social Security -- the people's safety net -- and a return to the politicization of government employment.

So when the president speaks of “reform,” buyer beware.

(Helen Thomas can be reached at 202-263-6400 or at the e-mail address hthomas@hearstdc.com)

(c) 2004 Hearst Newspapers