Well, Happy President's Day to you, too, for whatever that's worth.
Today, let's remember Chester Arthur, who is more responsible for the federal bureaucracy we love to hate than any person in history. Until his presidency, Washington was ruled by the spoils system created by Andrew Jackson. People said it had beomce "corrupt" and "inefficient," but what it really did was clean house every time a new president took over. Arthur pushed through Congress the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in January 1883, and government jobs ever since have been based on "merit" instead of "connections."
Bring back the inefficiency and corruption. How much worse could things be?
(As told in "Presidents' Most Wanted" by Nick Ragone.)
