> Legislation could be passed yesterday that would add arbitrary pay scales for special purposes such as these.

Or maybe add real progressive taxation that would get the $500k comps back into normal territory (by, among other things, taxing dividends, share options and the like accordingly).

The current minority party in the Senate, which under the current rules of the chamber is big enough to stop almost all legislation from moving, has no incentive to allow this to happen. In fact they have a strong incentive to oppose it, considering the makeup of their base.

Well, we have to do something about that. I don't like designing policy within the constraints of "Actually, we cannot have good policy".

The "no you cannot have good policy" party has almost 50% of the vote.

Yup, they do. So it's really important to try to bring some transitional policy about just barely can wedged through that will nonetheless have such a effect that the balance electorial power and/or policy positions of the parties will realign. (In the short term, it may be the former, in the long term in better be the latter.)

Tough cookie!

If you can't do that, well, then you better consider secession or something. I don't want to live out my old age in a "New America, Yukon" military junta rump state because some people sit down, blushing, seeing Rubicons on all sides in 2021.

(The sad irony of course being that crossing Rubicons made military Rubicons then, I know. But it was a lack of meaningful other reforms too. So find a Gracchi metaphor instead, I guess.)

Or how about we just end this culture of legislative micro-management, so that we don't have the problem in the first place?

From there, we can give the agency the budget to do the job, and let someone who's actually close to the situation decide whether it makes more sense to contract it out or build an in-person team. A bunch of legislators who are well-known to be perpetually too busy conducting fundraising lunches with lobbyists to actually read the text of the bills they're crafting and voting on are never going to be making informed decisions on matters at this level of detail.

Legislative oversight of the executive branch is a feature, not a bug. Presidents aren't kings, neither are cabinet members princes.

That said, appropriations is no barrier to hiring the necessary talent. There are plenty of well-run private data centers in the federal government, staffed by both federal employees and government contractors.

Politician micro-management is a real problem in the US, but keep in mind that these restrictions of the bureaucracy are a more second-order effect. They are less about directly giving the politicians more control than keeping the civil service week to the benefit of the contractors, and that outcome continues whether or not the politicians find it worth their time to meddle with any specific project.

Also, it's my understanding that the micro-management is more a problem on the state and local level, like NY state politicians such as Cuomo forcing the MTA to take on debt for these stupid stations rather than improve service.