Administrative versus Legislative

[Superman]

I was surfing the tech board and ran across a thread discussing an emissions test station that rejected a car because of the non-OEM Permatune CDI. One post was predictably critical of the test station attendant.

Granted, the question of whether a particular aftermarket component should be acceptable should have an answer and the attendants should have access to that information. On the other hand, aftermarket ignition, fuel or exhaust compoents are usually not okay. We know that a good aftermarket CDI will not increase emissions. But also, imagine the volume of interpretive questions that come to an agency charged with administration and enforcement of a series regulations. And this question. This particular question requires testing in order to determine whether or not aftermarket ignition systems are as clean as OEM.

Anyway, the post reminded me of the two part of "gubmint." One is the executive/legislative, and the other is the tactical administrative arm, some agency. Having worked in the public sector, I am somewhat more sensitive to the challenges faced by those agencies, and the budget crunches they endure when it is fashionable for legislatures to cut budgets. My experience suggests for example that legislatures make sexy laws for political reasons without regard for the challenges of administering and enforcing those laws.

My conservative friends here seem to flog agencies and their (overall, in my epxerience) dedicated and responsible public servants. So, I guess if there is something they like, it is their elected representatives. I am creating this thread to once again express my very opposite position. I am comfortable with agencies, for the most part (sure, a few exceptions). I would support being very careful to make only those laws that we really want in place (I'm not a 'bigger is better" government guy although some folks will never accept that since liberals cannot possibly have any correct notions), and then be serious about funding their administration and enforcement so that the job gets done right, instead of using the low-budget duct tape and bailing wire systems that frustrate us. And I am not in agreement that my conservative friends' legislators are the saviors. Indeed, they are invariably the ones who cut the budgets in order to throttle agencies' pursuit of their mandates. I would say those legislatores ARE the problem, since they are causing the poor performance of government. At least, that has been my experience as a insider to both the legislative and administrative systems.

So there. I think you're hooking your cart to the wrong oxen. Those guys are the anarchists. Sure, you may applaud their throwing monkey wrenches deliberately into the administrative machinery because they hate government like you do. But the fact remains, at least in my experience, that they are causing the problems, not solving them.