Business as Usual?

We've all probably heard someone say that government should be run more like a business. Be careful what you wish for, because we could be right on the cusp.

When Diogenes heard that the Great Pretender had appointed his billionaire son-in-law Jared Kushner to head his new White House Office of American Innovation, his only comment was, "What took him so long?" The OAI, as it will no doubt be called, will be generally charged with fixing "government stagnation," and will be staffed mostly with fat-cat corporate types.

Anyone who was pleased with the Supreme Court's risible Citizens United decision will be turning cartwheels of joy over this breach in the dike of federal regulation. It remains to be seen how this new office, which may be given virtually unlimited power over the structure of government, will function, but you can be sure a lot of agencies will get pink-slipped and that the DC unemployment lines will grow longer.

The federal government has always viewed American big business with an uneasy eye. True, Calvin Coolidge famously said, "The business of America is business," but he tempered that by pointing out that he was referring to the general industriousness of the American people.

Other presidents have been less charitable, from Thomas Jefferson, who said, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country," to Dwight Eisenhower, who warned, "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Because of these concerns the federal government has developed agencies whose business is to regulate business. Not because government automatically distrusts all business, but because, as Barack Obama pointed out, "In the absence of sound oversight, responsible businesses are forced to compete against unscrupulous and underhanded businesses, who are unencumbered by any restrictions on activities that might harm the environment, or take advantage of middle-class families, or threaten to bring down the entire financial system."

And Don John and his pal Jared are about to let the foxes run the henhouse.

--Richard Brown