Out of Control

Now that I've got you're attention, former Clinton-Gore aide Elaine Kamarck has a new book, "The End of Government...As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work." Washington Post columnist Stephen Barr recently wrote about the book, the full article can be found here.

I haven't read the book but I sure like the title, and from the looks of Barr's column I just might enjoy the book too. Kamarck argues that we need a new way of governing and she relies on many of the tools that Reason has been fighting for. For example,

Government needs to focus on results and use performance measures to track programs and services. Unfortunately, government employees unions have fought these efforts in the past and most likely will in the future. Furthermore, when was the last time an elected official had the stomach to end or alter a failing program (does public education ring a bell)? The government's usual response is to send more money.

Kamarck also calls for "government by network." She may have picked this up while at Harvard where my friend and colleague Bill Eggers along with Stephen Goldsmith recently wrote "Governing By Network" - essentially this is where government uses the network of service providers -- universities, laboratories, nonprofit and for-profit organizations to do the work that the government wants done.

Last, Kamarck also calls for "government by market" where through incentives are used to change peoples behavior, such as one so people will stop driving gas-guzzling cars. This one probably raises a red flag for any liberty lover in this country -- its a pretty slippery slope when you start using taxes or incentives to create the world you want...especially if taxes are used as penalities for exercising your preference.

"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
President Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

or

"We will govern to solve problems."
Governor Bill Ritter, Inaugural Address, January 9, 2007

hat tip to Jon Caldara at the Independence Institute who does great work in Colorado.

DC's new baseball stadium. DC council Chairman Linda W. Cropp had this to say "Major League Baseball did not get an open checkbook" refering to the $611 million "investment" spending cap.

Stadium subsidy plan will bypass Legislature.

a Missouri state agency is poised to approve $50 million in public funds for renovations to professional sports stadiums in Kansas City...last year, a Senate plan to use tax money for the overhaul died in the House amid complaints that the state had more pressing needs.

But now the decision is in the hands of a low-profile panel called the Missouri Development Finance Board. The board will be asked to approve tax credits, which could be sold to raise cash for construction.

The Cardinals took the same path after legislators balked in 2002 at subsidizing a new ballpark to replace Busch Stadium. The board then gave the Cardinals $29.5 million in tax credits as part of a financing package.

Nothing like transparent government!

A new paper by TSAugust reports on "Snake Oil Energy" -- the myth being perpetrated that hydrogen Hyper cars using fuel cells could establish a system of distributed power generation that would eliminate the need for coal burning or nuclear power plants.

50 years ago today, the US Supreme Court ruled in Berman v. Parker that property could be taken for "public use" to remove slum and blight...but they, allowed the property to be transferred to another private party for development.

This marked the first time that property was taken, and used for purely profit driven purposes - not a public use. Leading to what some have termed eminent domain abuse. The Castle Coalition has been fighting for property owners, read up on this case here.