IF it were ACTUALLY "Independent", they wouldn't DEPEND on the government for a paycheck+tip.

Do we really need a perpetual motion spending machine to tell us "fireworks are dangerous"?

What's happening, in a larger sense, is the elected elitists in congress construct these structures of agencies and NGOs as vehicles for redirecting government funds to themselves+ family n friends.
Successive iterations of these carpetbaggers see the examples, and they want their share of largess, so they invent a new 'need' that requires another new agency to give grants to another set of NGOs.

We now have, metaphorically, an accretion of these barnacles on our hull. Unchecked, such accretions will sink even the largest ship, including our ship of state.
Somebody has to scrape off at least some of the barnacles.

Also, this current nonsense of congress creating 'independent' agencies is just that. They never should have been allowed to create the FED the way they did, and now are pretending that precedent as normal. It isn't. In fact we have the APA created to reel in this fourth-branch agency network, ironically being used now as a tool of politically appointed activist district judges to defend their sponsors' unconstitutionally 'independent' agencies.

#3 |
You make a compelling argument, albeit not the one you think you're making

The Deep State: The Headless Fourth Branch of Government
Mises Institute
https://mises.org mises-wire deep-state-headless-fourt...
Nov 20, 2019 " The fourth is what for decades now has been called a "headless fourth branch of government," the administrative state.

The Administrative Procecure Act ("APA") defines "agency" in Title 5 of the United States Code at 5 U.S.C. 551(1). Much of our semester will be spent looking at this statute, originally passed by Congress in 1946 to govern how federal agencies can make and enforce rules.

The rest of of the civil servants can only take tips or "Gratuities" that up to $20 or $50 in one year.

#6 |

"tips" in the context of my post is intended to mean 'bonuses and junkets to Hawaii' etc., and should include as well campaign contributions from lobbyists representing interests affected by agency 'rulings' (unconstitutional legislation) even to the point of staffing these 'independent' agencies with principals from the very industry entities the agencies purport to control, e.g. Big Pharma and their revolving door between agency leadership and board membership.

#9 |
#10 |

We're spending too much, ladies. Don't try to read too much into it, just give up with the credit cards, NOW.

It's a perk of having a good job. That's how the world works.

#12 |

They may have good jobs, but they're not doing a good job.
You don't give bonuses if your company's in the red.
-Unless your Uncle Sam tokin' your friends and family.
The interest on your credit card has passed 1,000,000,000,000.00 per annum! Daddy's home, now give me them cards Bee itch! Gonna cut'em up right in front of you!