December 8, 2002
AMERICA'S CEO:
The Incredible Shrinking Government, Bush Style (RICHARD W. STEVENSON, December 8, 2002, NY Times)UNLIKE Ronald Reagan, who insisted government is the problem not the solution, President Bush has never cast himself as an anti-Washington crusader. Indeed, national security concerns have forced him to put aside any ideological qualms he has about big government to support a striking expansion of federal powers and bureaucracy.Yet over the past several months, Mr. Bush has picked a fight with the federal work force in a way that has revived concern among labor unions — and hope among conservatives — that he is intent on being a hard-nosed, confrontational chief operating officer for Washington Inc. even as he rallies the government and the nation behind him in his role as commander in chief.
His impetus may be more managerial than ideological. But if Mr. Bush prevails, he could end up doing more to overhaul the Civil Service and to advance the conservative small-government agenda than any of his predecessors, Mr. Reagan included.
For quite some time now, folks have been cautioned that they should pay more attention to George W. Bush’s roots in the business world if they want to understand his management style. But many have proven incapable of giving him credit for this much coherence. They too resemble the frogs below.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 8, 2002 10:59 AM
I'm afraid all of mr. Bush's qualities as president won't be of any help for his reelection. Saddam managed to ship his report to a UN commission that will come to conclusions somewhere in the 22nd century. How did Kofi Annan, Saddam's trusted ally, manage to pull this stunt off ?
Although I have a great deal of admiration for the leadership Bush showed so far, I don't think he's the kind of man who is willing to take the US out of the UN, which is now obviously a precondition for doing anything about the Saddam problem.
Peter -- hardly -- Bush hasn't committed to refraining from any action that is not UN-approved. The US doesn't have to leave the UN, just ignore it the way every other country does when contemplating military action.
In fact US military forces are already operating inside Iraq, and are prepared to seize Iraq's known weapons of mass destruction upon Bush's order. This will probably be done to obtain proof of Iraqi weapons when Bush is ready to confront the UN and start the war.
Didn't read the article but the author may be onto something. One of the reasons I voted for Bush (besides being repulsed by Gore) is that I thought a President with an MBA might run the show better than the typical lawyer President. By pushing for performance and accountability Bush may be laying the groundwork for reducing the federal workforce. I am probably naive but I think Bush may actually reduce federal employment by consolidating agencies into Homeland Defense. My ultimate hope is that he starts reducing other agencies (i.e merge Labor and Commerce, downsize EPA, Energy)
Posted by: AWW at December 8, 2002 2:10 PMIf they do move Don Evans to Treasury they should fold Commerce, a pure GOP boondoggle.
Posted by: oj at December 8, 2002 6:18 PM