Howard Dean is the candidate of choice for the bloated and inefficient public sector:
Dean won backing from the largest AFL-CIO affiliate, the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (search), and secretly lined up support from another.Think of it this way the next time you're waiting in line at the DMV: George W Bush is on the side of those who are standing in line, Howard Dean is on the side of the slow-moving people behind the counter.The 1.5-million member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (search) is set to endorse Dean jointly with the SEIU next week
No inflammaory rhetoric today from this so-called liberal; just a question. The DMV is stock in trade for TV commedians and anybody else who wants to take a crack at the government bureaucracy. But I can appreciate your frustration there.
Here in Tennessee, we only have to go in once every five years to renew (mainly for a recent photo which everyone always considers unflattering). Once you get waited on, the process could take awhile, maybe an hour, mainly because there are a lot of people. If we let the license expire and have to be retested, then it takes quite a bit longer. Remember, though, it's once every five years.
Kids going in for the first time shouldn't complain about taking a little time--in life, we sometimes have to pay some dues, you know.
I did go there recently with my daughter to renew her driver's license. There were four clerks and about 50 people waiting in the small, crowded office.
We then went from there to the county clerk's office, where we renew the tags for the car. Knox county has several satellite offices, so the lines are very short and the whole process takes only 5 minutes anyway. In fact, for an extra dollar, you can do it by mail.
Perhaps some of the West Coast folks should come for a visit and check out our hillbilly system.
Posted by: SemiPundit on November 8, 2003 01:19 PMI prefer to think of it this way: Howard Dean is on the side who want to keep people on the other side of the counter employed and working to help the people in line, George W Bush is on the side who wants to lay off half of them and reduce the benefits of the rest and give the savings to his cronies, so they can afford to pay other people to stand in line for them.
Posted by: Simon on November 10, 2003 06:08 PMThe "pay people to stand in line for them" caught my attention. For the curious, just Google "linestanders" for info on something I heard about lobbyists (of all kinds) on PBR.
Posted by: SemiPundit on November 11, 2003 09:57 AMOops! How did I manage to turn NPR into PBR?
Posted by: SemiPundit on March 3, 2004 01:47 AM