"When Buying and Selling are Controlled by Legislation, the First Things to be Bought and Sold are Legislators."
The idea that big government is inherently corrupting is as old as America itself. It was part of the Founders' case for casting off the chains of the British monarchy. More recently, the principle that big government breeds big corruption was perhaps expressed best by humorist P.J. O'Rourke, who said:
"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."
Blago is Just the Most Obvious Example
The shocking case of corruption in the office of the governor of Illinois by Rod Blagojevich is just the most obvious manifestation of this tendency for dishonesty to grow as government grows. When the Detroit public school system continues to take money for the 76 percent of students that it fails to graduate on time or at all, its administrators aren't being honest.
When 80 percent -- 80 percent! -- of California Highway Patrol assistant and deputy chiefs claim a disability at retirement to inflate their pensions, they are not being honest. (Also see this shocking story from yesterday's New York Times).
When at least 25 percent of the $50 billion of the taxpayers' money spent each year on Medicaid in New York is likely due to fraud, waste and misuse, it's not only the individuals defrauding the system that are being dishonest, but the government officials allowing this travesty to continue are dishonest as well.
The list could go on and on.
Corruption Will Only Grow as Government Expands into Our Economy
It's examples like these that have caused Americans to lose faith and trust in their government. It was Republicans who paid the price for this in November, but in reality, all of us are paying. And we'll only pay more as the federal government moves further and further into part-ownership of America's insurance companies, banks, financial institutions and, most likely, Detroit's auto industry. That's why I believe that the most important words in rethinking government in the next decade won't be vague promises like "change" or massive government attempts at make-work "stimulus."
Honesty. Effectiveness. Productivity. Creativity.
The four most important words in rethinking government in the years to come will be these:
Honesty
Effectiveness
Productivity
Creativity
There are sub-words that could be added. For instance, the natural counterpart to honesty in government is "accountability." Honesty in government also breeds "integrity" in government. But note one thing: Each of these words emphatically do not describe hulking behemoths like bureaucracies, bloated labor unions, or massive corporations.
Honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity don't describe Washington. They describe places like Silicon Valley. They describe the lean, agile and innovative companies and institutions that are making American better every day.
The Watchwords of the World That Works
Honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity describe the world that works rather than the world that fails. Our goal in the coming months and years must be to move our government from the world of dishonesty, failure, inefficiency and stagnation -- the world that fails -- to the world of honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity -- the world that works. Think this sounds like cock-eyed optimism? If so, I'm in good company.
Ronald Reagan once said there are no easy solutions, just simple ones. Nothing could be simpler than the four watchwords for transforming government I've laid out -- and nothing will be more difficult than changing our government institutions to meet them.
Governor Blagojevich is long past due for a wake-up call. It's time to get to work.
The idea that big government is inherently corrupting is as old as America itself. It was part of the Founders' case for casting off the chains of the British monarchy. More recently, the principle that big government breeds big corruption was perhaps expressed best by humorist P.J. O'Rourke, who said:
"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."
Blago is Just the Most Obvious Example
The shocking case of corruption in the office of the governor of Illinois by Rod Blagojevich is just the most obvious manifestation of this tendency for dishonesty to grow as government grows. When the Detroit public school system continues to take money for the 76 percent of students that it fails to graduate on time or at all, its administrators aren't being honest.
When 80 percent -- 80 percent! -- of California Highway Patrol assistant and deputy chiefs claim a disability at retirement to inflate their pensions, they are not being honest. (Also see this shocking story from yesterday's New York Times).
When at least 25 percent of the $50 billion of the taxpayers' money spent each year on Medicaid in New York is likely due to fraud, waste and misuse, it's not only the individuals defrauding the system that are being dishonest, but the government officials allowing this travesty to continue are dishonest as well.
The list could go on and on.
Corruption Will Only Grow as Government Expands into Our Economy
It's examples like these that have caused Americans to lose faith and trust in their government. It was Republicans who paid the price for this in November, but in reality, all of us are paying. And we'll only pay more as the federal government moves further and further into part-ownership of America's insurance companies, banks, financial institutions and, most likely, Detroit's auto industry. That's why I believe that the most important words in rethinking government in the next decade won't be vague promises like "change" or massive government attempts at make-work "stimulus."
Honesty. Effectiveness. Productivity. Creativity.
The four most important words in rethinking government in the years to come will be these:
Honesty
Effectiveness
Productivity
Creativity
There are sub-words that could be added. For instance, the natural counterpart to honesty in government is "accountability." Honesty in government also breeds "integrity" in government. But note one thing: Each of these words emphatically do not describe hulking behemoths like bureaucracies, bloated labor unions, or massive corporations.
Honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity don't describe Washington. They describe places like Silicon Valley. They describe the lean, agile and innovative companies and institutions that are making American better every day.
The Watchwords of the World That Works
Honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity describe the world that works rather than the world that fails. Our goal in the coming months and years must be to move our government from the world of dishonesty, failure, inefficiency and stagnation -- the world that fails -- to the world of honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity -- the world that works. Think this sounds like cock-eyed optimism? If so, I'm in good company.
Ronald Reagan once said there are no easy solutions, just simple ones. Nothing could be simpler than the four watchwords for transforming government I've laid out -- and nothing will be more difficult than changing our government institutions to meet them.
Governor Blagojevich is long past due for a wake-up call. It's time to get to work.
I think it's time to get to work on both parties and literally everyone in Washington, too. It's time to start demanding that much-promised and rarely-delivered transparency and accountability. It's time to start kicking out the worthless, big-spending, lying, unethical sleazebags who currently infest most of Congress. It's time for the American people to take back their country from the absolute and total losers -- who have sold out to lobbyists, wackos, and fraudsters -- who have been running it for years.
America is not, and never has been, all about the government of this country; America is all about the people of this country. Remember that little 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' thing? Apparently, our elected leaders don't, because it is the people that make America great. The government is at its best when it gets out of the way of the people, but right now we have precisely the opposite scenario - government is interfering with more and more people in more and more private industries on a daily basis.
It's our country. It's time to reclaim it.
We as a collective people have been complacent for too long, allowing leaders like what we have now to stay in power through our ignorant votes. The reclamation project begins win information - the truth about our representatives, what they stand for, and what they've done in office. From there, it becomes a question of transmission - spreading that information to family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Americans are smart people, good people, and people who usually do the right thing...when they have the truth. Then, the people of America will stand up and demand leaders worthy of themselves. Right now, our leaders are worthy only of the trash heap of history.
It's time to get to work.
There's my two cents.
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