October 8, 2016
Don't Run the Government Like a Business
By Matthew Fay
“Why can’t the government be run more like a business?” It’s a common refrain. Politicians and pundits often bemoan the government’s lack of efficiency, its rampant waste, and its bureaucratic bloat. Some tout experience in private-sector business management when hawking the credentials of favored candidates for political office — whether Mitt Romney in the past or, more disturbingly, Donald Trump today. It is almost an article of faith, for some, that business-minded folks possess a magic formula to cure the dysfunction of government administration.
The Department of Defense is no exception when it comes to praise of managerial acumen or the need to adopt business practices. In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on defense reform, more than one expert declared the need to emulate business practices or loosen the rules regarding private sector executives serving at the department. But there are two interrelated problems with these admonitions to run the Pentagon, in particular, and the U.S. government, in general, like a business. First, and most obviously, the government is not a business. Second, the Department of Defense is already run like a business — and that’s the culprit behind its chronic dysfunction.
http://www.realclearpolicy.com/blog/2016/10/08/dont_run_the_government_like_a_business_1735.html
