This passed me by when it came out, but as the first 100 days of the 45th President (not my president, not in a #notmypresident way but because I'm a UK citizen) come closer I caught this "action plan" that he made just before the election.
I'm not much of an economist or a lawyer, but I've worked in Government and other big bureaucracies. Some of these pledges read like typical ideas for people who don't understand how really big public organisations work. This is what I think of the six pledges intended to "clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC"
★ FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.
Makes sense, especially to someone who has benefitted directly from limits on office. If Obama had been able to stand for another four years, despite people's disappointment in him, looking at the overall general election numbers he would have been a much more formidable opponent than Hillary.
★ SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).
OK so why does a freeze and a reduction in the workforce do anything about corruption or special interest collusion? Are all government workers there as a result of corruption and organisational bloat? Are they all of equal value or use?
★ THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.
This is just dumb. It won't stop much regulation but it will slow every process down. All new regulations can't be bad, there must be some good ones. And they (and the teams working on them) will just work slower and harder. Slowing Government down doesn't reduce corruption. If anything it opens up an opportunity for more corruption in order to get anything done.
★ FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
Well yes, but what about the ones who've done this over the last twenty years? Surely there's another way to reduce the influence of lobbyists than to shut the door after the horses have bolted.
★ FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
★ SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
I don't know enough to comment on these but are there really examples of people doing these things or are these just dog-whistle slurs?
Interesting times...
PS that signature!