Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Convention, addresses delegates during the opening day of the convention Monday. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

“The 2012 Republican Platform is a statement of who we are and what we believe as a Party and our vision for a stronger and freer America.”

So says the first sentence in the platform guiding Republicans this election season. While party platforms are often forgotten, they do indicate the values political parties promote.

In the case of Republicans, “private” — as in private sector, private stewardship and private ownership — is the value that frequently emerges from platform planks on federal policies. Private is the opposite of public and public implies government, so what would the platform mean for federal programs and employees?

Here’s a look at some of the planks, which like much of the platform, focus on the Republican goal of making government smaller.

One interesting plank for a party that will nominate Donald Trump, the self-declared “law and order” presidential candidate, calls for cutting the number of federal crimes.

But let’s begin with federal employees who implement all U.S. government programs.

The section on “Modernizing the Federal Civil Service,” says that “the federal workforce bears great responsibilities and sometimes wields tremendous power, especially when Congress delegates to it the execution of complicated and far-reaching legislation.”

The next sentence combines a nod of appreciation to federal workers, but with a twist: “We recognize the dedication of federal workers and the difficulty of their thankless task of implementing poorly drafted or open-ended legislation.”

Like many of the planks, this one recycles proposals that have been around for a long time, including the call to cut the federal workforce by 10 percent. The platform does not offer specific plans for compensation, but does say that pay and benefits should “reflect those of the private sector.… The federal pay system should be sufficiently flexible to acknowledge and reward those who dare to innovate, reduce overhead, optimize processes, and expedite paperwork.”

The platform raises an old canard, saying that “delinquency in paying taxes … has been too common in some segments of the civil service.” The fact is the tax delinquency rate for federal civilian employees is less than 4 percent, meaning 96 percent of them are not delinquent. For taxpayers generally, the delinquency rate is twice as high.

While Republicans have tried and failed to pass legislation that would punish tax delinquent federal staffers, Congress did approve a bill last year against awarding grants and contracts to companies and individuals who are seriously behind.