Dear conservatives: You want to actually make government efficient?

Having spent some time recently at the Department of Public Safety, I have one Grade A suggestion. (And no, fellow Texan readers, I wasn't in the clink.)

Let's start with the driver's license office.

The DPS, or the Department of Motor Vehicles as a separate agency in many states, are the driver's license folks. And who can't and doesn't tell horror stories about them? Add to it that Texas' voter ID bill passed last year has extended its leprous spread to the driver's license portion of the DPS, like if you're a woman and got married since your last driver's license renewal, and the clusterfuckocity (my blog, I'll invent an occasional word when I want) has only increased here in the Pointy Abandoned Object State in general, and specifically for newly married women, if you want license renewals.

(Note to women: Don't change your "maiden" name. Period. Just don't do it. Or, if you're religious enough to think you have to as part of marital "submission," you know who to blame. Gov. Helmethair.)

Further bollixing things up, and leading to my point, is that the "great" (sorry, Wendy Davis, sit down) State of Texas has seen fit to close DPS driver's license shops in a number of smaller counties. Mine's one of them.

Well, in the last decade, banks have started keeping evening and Saturday hours at more branches, and even going so far as to, in bigger cities, opening branches inside groceries. (Of course, that's with hiring most employees on a PT basis, and paying them only a step or two above WallyWorld. No wonder some of said employees call themselves "money clerks" or similar.)

Anyway, why can't we do similar with DPS? (And non-Texans, ditto with the DMV or whatever in your states.)

At least in bigger cities, have a few office that stay open until 7 or so a night or two a week. Have a few others that have Saturday hours.

Oh, and hire the extra people to make this happen right, and to improve the current situation.

With people not having to spend 2-3 hours renewing licenses, or non-maidenly Texas women having to waste 10-12 hours or more, work in private sector jobs would be aided a bit, too.