Can’t say that I totally agree with your analysis and proposed solution, but it certainly makes more sense than DOGE and Trump’s reckless dismantling of government based on nothing more than his whim and Project 2025 outline.
We tend to think in decades of progress or regression. The more I dive in the more I see how far we’ve changed as a nation. Some good, some not. I think we tend to separate the Founding principles from where we are today and, as a result, make the Constitution convenient or inconvenient depending on the circumstances.
We can disagree with being disagreeable and that gets us closer to where we should be. This exercise, by the way, isn’t about being right but trying get to the root of where it changed course.
I appreciate you reading and welcome all debate to help get to that point along the way.
HARBOR is a great idea. But I think we need to take it one step further and redesign the entire executive branch. If we started the federal government again with a blank sheet of paper, it would look very different than it does today and would certainly be more efficient and effective.
We’ve made attempts before. The Grace Commission produced volumes of ideas in 1983, and they are collecting dust somewhere in DC. A full reset would be welcome but I know with everything in politics, taking something away is far worse than giving it away. I wish that weren’t true.
I agree with you completely. I don’t think a reset is feasible unless something dramatic happens. That said, a restructuring could deliver the same services at a much lower cost.
This deserves a lot more discussion. I worked with David Osborne of Reinventing Government fame years ago on a budget roadmap for South Carolina. He taught me a lot about how to evaluate effective programs and find savings in operations. I realize our mistake was not leveraging outside groups to advocate for the changes. I did put it to use at the Department of Education years later with much better success. His approach with the help of Al Gore was a far better approach than what we’ve seen since. We should try resurrecting the model.
I agree. There's at least one outside group taking a clean sheet of paper look right now. A dramatic change would require at least congress and outside groups. A cooperative executive branch would be helpful too. One of the many changes with anything like this would be that jobs would change and there would be different jobs - not necessarily fewer jobs since there are so many contractors - and there would be tremendous resistance to that. But can you imagine? A zero base federal government?
Can’t say that I totally agree with your analysis and proposed solution, but it certainly makes more sense than DOGE and Trump’s reckless dismantling of government based on nothing more than his whim and Project 2025 outline.
We tend to think in decades of progress or regression. The more I dive in the more I see how far we’ve changed as a nation. Some good, some not. I think we tend to separate the Founding principles from where we are today and, as a result, make the Constitution convenient or inconvenient depending on the circumstances.
We can disagree with being disagreeable and that gets us closer to where we should be. This exercise, by the way, isn’t about being right but trying get to the root of where it changed course.
I appreciate you reading and welcome all debate to help get to that point along the way.
HARBOR is a great idea. But I think we need to take it one step further and redesign the entire executive branch. If we started the federal government again with a blank sheet of paper, it would look very different than it does today and would certainly be more efficient and effective.
We’ve made attempts before. The Grace Commission produced volumes of ideas in 1983, and they are collecting dust somewhere in DC. A full reset would be welcome but I know with everything in politics, taking something away is far worse than giving it away. I wish that weren’t true.
I agree with you completely. I don’t think a reset is feasible unless something dramatic happens. That said, a restructuring could deliver the same services at a much lower cost.
This deserves a lot more discussion. I worked with David Osborne of Reinventing Government fame years ago on a budget roadmap for South Carolina. He taught me a lot about how to evaluate effective programs and find savings in operations. I realize our mistake was not leveraging outside groups to advocate for the changes. I did put it to use at the Department of Education years later with much better success. His approach with the help of Al Gore was a far better approach than what we’ve seen since. We should try resurrecting the model.
I agree. There's at least one outside group taking a clean sheet of paper look right now. A dramatic change would require at least congress and outside groups. A cooperative executive branch would be helpful too. One of the many changes with anything like this would be that jobs would change and there would be different jobs - not necessarily fewer jobs since there are so many contractors - and there would be tremendous resistance to that. But can you imagine? A zero base federal government?