(Photo illustration from the Center for Public Integrity "Broken Government" project.)
by Frank James
It's bad enough President-elect Barack Obama will assume office amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and two wars.
But the non-partisan Center for Public Government reminds us in its aptly named "Broken Government" report that Obama will also take up the reins of a seriously buggy Executive Branch (not that Congress functions much better.
An excerpt:
In this, a comprehensive assessment of these failures, we found more than 125 examplesof government breakdown in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety, and more -- failures which adversely affected ordinary people and made the nation a less open or less secure place to live. While some are, by now, depressingly familiar, many are less well-known but equally distressing.
And though the list is diverse, it also reflects some recurring -- and troubling -- themes.
Some of these problems were in place well before George W. Bush's inauguration, but were exacerbated by his policies or worsened by his administration's actions (or inactions). Many of the failings are tied to Bush appointees who appear to have been selected primarily on the basis of ideology and loyalty, rather than competence. Every administration has its share of political cronies, of course, but the examples of the past eight years seem especially stark:
· a National Aeronautics and Space Administration inspector general who blocked multiple investigations -- Republican Senator Charles Grassley said of his leadership: "I thought he'd be gone by now. . . . You'd like to have him get the message."
· a secretary of Housing and Urban Development who openly encouraged his staffto consider political affiliation when awarding contracts
· a team leading the Department of the Interior that was so flagrantly involved in political activity that the department's own inspector general noted that "short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior."
The administration has also displayed what's at best a lukewarm interest in independent oversight, often siding with business over consumers and special interests over the public.The results have had dramatic consequences in a variety of sectors. Among the examples:
· an Environmental Protection Agency that largely ignored and underutilized its own office and task force on children's health, leaving the governmental entity responsible for air quality and other regulations without any "high-level infrastructure or mandate" to protect children.
· a Food and Drug Administration unable to guarantee food and drug safety -- causing conservative Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas to repeatedly blast the agency for "stonewalling, slowrolling, and plain incompetency."
· a Federal Labor Relations Board that in the past year has been without a general counsel and the required quorum necessary to handle hundreds of complaints regarding unfair labor practices.
Much of the function of the federal government shifted from public employees to private contractors, as federal spending on contractors nearly doubled from FY 2001 to FY 2006, jumping from $234.8 billion to $415 billion. These contracts often lacked competitive bidding processes and effective oversight and suffered from cost overruns and poor execution.
Finally, the White House and its political appointees have frequently inserted themselves into matters of science, overruling experts and suppressing reports that did not coincide with the administration's philosophy. The nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists warned that "political interference in federal government science is weakening our nation's ability to respond to the complex challenges we face."
"I think we'll look back on this period as one of the most destructive periods in American public life . . . both in terms of policy and process," Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, told the Center. "The broken government is not limited to one end of Pennsylvania Avenue; it involves the executive and legislative branches, which both contributed to embracing policies and actions that have come back to haunt us."
Comments
From the above article:
"But the non-partisan Center for Public Government reminds us in its aptly named "Broken Government" report that Obama will also take up the reins of a seriously buggy Executive Branch (not that Congress functions much better."
What can you say about a political "reporter" who can't even get the right name of the group whose report he's quoting? It's the "Center for Public Integrity", not the "Center for Public Government."
And the CPI is about as "non-partisan" as the Democratic Party National Committee or, for that matter, the Swamp.
What we see here is "Broken Journalism".
Posted by: Change You Can Believe In | January 7, 2009 3:33 PM
Ahhh, Frank, do you have ANY knowledge of history? I believe the Jimmy Carter Recession in which this country had double digit inflation, double digit interest rates and double digit unemployment was much worse than our current economic situation.
Frank James: perhaps THE worst and sorriest excuse for a "journalist" -- EVER!!
Posted by: John D | January 7, 2009 4:10 PM
Where was Congress all this time? They write the laws and appropriate the money? They have oversight. Does this mean Obama will be unable to correct and right our government? I think this story is a conspiracy by the MSM and liberals to continue the "blame Bush" mantra, thus Obama will never be accountable. After the oath of office, it will be "the decider's" decisions, policies,and consequences. Are we going to hear for the next four years, "it was Bush", "it was so broken". Give it a rest. Let him stand on his own. God bless America.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 7, 2009 4:27 PM
"Obama To Inherit 'Broken Government"
....the end result of eight years of Bush/Republican "leadership".
Congrats Repuglicans, you didn't get your current minority status by accident. You earned it.
Posted by: Big Orange Satan | January 7, 2009 4:46 PM
And the CPI is about as "non-partisan" as the Democratic Party National Committee or, for that matter, the Swamp.
What we see here is "Broken Journalism".
Posted by: Change You Can Believe In | January 7, 2009 3:33 PM
Teresa,
Give it a rest.
In your mind, Rush and Bill-O are bipartisan.
Posted by: HopeNChange | January 7, 2009 4:51 PM
The most significant part of the report is one that you would have had to be unwilling to recognize in order to not be aware that Bush appointee were not chosen on the basis of competence and that their performance could have been anticipated to be inept. This is one area in which people who voted for Obama will see Change You Can Believe In. It will take someone who is strongly partisan to not recognize this potential, such as the person who made the first post.
Posted by: Ron M | January 7, 2009 4:53 PM
Where was Congress all this time? They write the laws and appropriate the money?
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 7, 2009 4:27 PM
Jeffy,
For a majority of the last eight years the team you cheerlead for (Republicans) was in charge of congress too.
Heckuva Job, GOoPers!
Posted by: dano | January 7, 2009 5:50 PM
Not so fast, John D.... it was President Ford who put out the Whip Inflation Now buttons, etc. Don't blame that all on Jimmy Carter. He inherited that inflation.
Posted by: rupert | January 7, 2009 6:17 PM
". . . nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists . . ."
Not sure I ever saw those words butted up against each other before.
Posted by: DaveB | January 7, 2009 6:25 PM
The core belief, nay, frank mantra of the right Repuglicans was:
Government doesn't work.
Sometimes stated as:
Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.
In terms of proving that proposition, the Bush administration has been successful.
Katrina.
SEC oversight of the public markets.
Old arthritic fingers can't begin to list them all.
But I would go out on a limb and say, I think it will be found someday that, when the inner circle figured they were going to lose no matter what, they decided to "burst the bubble".
Hard for Paulson & Kash & Kari to do?
Not really.
Look how easily Paulson rolled the Congress on TARP.
"Investment Bankers" are first & foremost fast talking salesmen for "deals", glorified stockbrokers.
In this case, Paulson rolled the Congress by talking panic.
A not unheard of sales pitch in the odd hostile takeover or greenmail situatino or any number of situations where Goldman panics some board of directors into doing what Goldman wants.
TARP is probably the biggest bank heist of all time.
By the way, did that "immunity" provision Paulson put in his first draft, end up in the final version, in the superfine print somewhere???
Posted by: ornery | January 7, 2009 8:42 PM
Posted by: John D | January 7, 2009 4:10 PM
You jealousy is showing again!
When are you going to post links to your latest stories on pinatas and light bulbs in freezer cases?
Posted by: BC | January 7, 2009 9:33 PM
Plus, JD, the Reagan Recession of 1981-82 was a really, really bad one.
Reagan was concerned he'd be a one term president.
However, Dems didn't have a candidate. Teddy had facilitated Reagan's victory in 80 by running against Carter in the primaries. When it was all ego. No one who drove an intern off a bridge and then claimed amnesia could ever be elected president, not even today after Monica and the Blue Dress, and certainly not in 80.
Then of course there was good ole Ted Koppel.
Day 346 of the Hostage Crisis...
Day 347 of the Hostage Crisis...
He intoned night after night.
This was before cable. People who regarded themselves as well informed felt obligated to watch his show every night.
Carter to some extent was a victim of circumstance, including the hyped up Hostage Crisis.
Whereas, if it had happened on Reagan's watch, he probably would have OK'ed a deal sub rosa of arms for hostages, and/or made a speech to the effect that: We regret what has happened but foreign service officers are career professionals and when they go into the foreign service they know full well that this is a risk they take....yada yada.
Inflation and the inevitable downturn at the end of the VietNam war were in full operation before Carter was ever sworn in.
So, that old "worst president ever" thing really won't work on Carter, particularly now, that we've really seen the worst president ever for the last 8 yrs.
Posted by: ornery | January 7, 2009 9:34 PM
John D.- Your knowledge of history is wanting. Jimmy Carter inherited that economic situation from...Jerry Ford. Just check your United States history books. Also, debt levels back then were no where near they are today. You do not think outside your little box.
Posted by: Doug R. | January 8, 2009 8:09 AM
Nice little historical revisionism there, Ornery. Anyway, the so-called "Reagan Recession of 1981-82" really was just a continuation of the recession and malaise during the Carter years. You know when the Misery Index was created.
And, a hyped up hostage crisis? A U.S. embassy overrun and hostages held for over a year and that is hyped up? Wow, looniness really does exist in the Weird Alternative Reality World that is the Left.
Posted by: John D | January 8, 2009 9:47 AM