And what exactly do all these people do every day? I have watched very little of these hearings, but the one thing that has stuck out to me is how many different people we ostensibly have employed to hang around and/or monitor Ukraine? Is this the case for every other country in the world? And just what exactly do they do every day?
Having a robust diplomatic corps in the State Department is much cheaper than war.
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Who knew foreign relations would be so hard
For crying out loud. 
Here, hopefully this will explain what embassies and diplomacy are for.
This is the thing that gripes me the most…from locAl schools all the way up to the federal government…this idea that an administrator adds zero value and that you can get by with a bare minimum.
Businesses learned long ago, paradoxically, that the more you focused on cost control, the more money you actually spent.
When there’s no slack in your system, you overtax your system and it breaks down.
If Trump truly wants us out of endless wars…if he truly wants other world powers to take more responsibility for their regions of the world?
He needs to expand our diplomatic corps, not contract them.
The value gained would be less military expenditures to defend ourselves.
There are 42,000 state department employees.
They conduct United States foriegn policy according to the executive department and congressional directives.
Allan
They all love handing out titles and awards to each other at cocktail parties.
Well worth it.
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Are they all full time positions?
There are about 15,150 members of the Foreign Service.
A small part of that, perhaps 1,000 or so, comprise the Senior Foreign Service, who serve as Ambassadors and in other senior positions.
Very few positions in the Federal Government are part time and probably none in the State Department.
I’m not going to disagree here but IMO it’s counter productive if they’re all doing their own thing, their own policies.
You must be discussing the current administration’s dysfunctional state department…
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It’s been going on for long time…long before Trump. Everyone is going after their own special interest.
They are supposed to be implementing the foreign policy of the US, not determining what that policy is. I got the impression in those hearings that they thought the bureaucrats, not elected officials, were the ones who determined what our foreign policy is. That is the reverse of how the Constitution works.
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Agreed. If the president wants to promote a Russian disinformation campaign and use Congresional monies to extort foreign governments to pursue political vendettas, ambassadors need to shut up and go along with it.
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If the President wants to investigate possible Ukrainian interference in our electoral policy, it is their job to assist or quit, not to hang around, create presumptions they can’t back up, and spread a bunch of rumors back and forth that can’t be traced anywhere.
They send memos to each other, go to cocktail parties and have dinner with each other.
Yes. And there are a lot of benefits.
“Seven in 10 Americans think President Donald Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine – which have been outlined in the House impeachment inquiry - were “wrong” …”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/4227312002
We currently have one at Georgetown University.
