… How did F.D.R. manage to make big government so clean?
A large part of the answer is that oversight was built into New Deal programs from the beginning. The Works Progress Administration, in particular, had a powerful, independent “division of progress investigation” devoted to investigating complaints of fraud. This division was so diligent that in 1940, when a Congressional subcommittee investigated the W.P.A., it couldn’t find a single serious irregularity that the division had missed.
F.D.R. also made sure that Congress didn’t stuff stimulus legislation with pork: there were no earmarks in the legislation that provided funding for the W.P.A. and other emergency measures.
Last but not least, F.D.R. built an emotional bond with working Americans, which helped carry his administration through the inevitable setbacks and failures that beset its attempts to fix the economy.
So what are the lessons for the Obama team?
First, the administration of the economic recovery plan has to be squeaky clean. Purely economic considerations might suggest cutting a few corners in the interest of getting stimulus moving quickly, but the politics of the situation dictates great care in how money is spent. And enforcement is crucial: inspectors general have to be strong and independent, and whistle-blowers have to be rewarded, not punished as they were in the Bush years.
Second, the plan has to be really, truly pork-free. Vice President-elect Joseph Biden recently promised that the plan “will not become a Christmas tree”; the new administration needs to deliver on that promise.
Finally, the Obama administration and Democrats in general need to do everything they can to build an F.D.R.-like bond with the public. Never mind Mr. Obama’s current high standing in the polls based on public hopes that he’ll succeed. He needs a solid base of support that will remain even when things aren’t going well.
In a way, our streaming advice to Obama is a symptom of his only real problem – us. We get his message of "hope." We get his message of "change." I think we actually believe "yes, we can." But there’s one thing he hasn’t [and won’t say] that’s the most important one of all – faith. We flocked to him from Clinton and some of the others because we believed him. When Clinton talked about why she voted for the War, I thought she was blowing some smoke. I thought she voted for the War , in part, because she was afraid not to. I believed Barack Obama, even when he talked about Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko.
So now were bit-streaming advice to Obama that he should be what we thought he was. Why are we all doing that? It’s silly, micromanaging Obama, the person we elected to lead us because we believed in him. I think it’s because in 2001, we put our faith in a man who we knew was flawed, but we hoped he’d rise to the occasion. And we stuck with him until it became abundantly clear that he and his able assistants betrayed us. Going the War with Iraq was more than a mistake. It was a betrayal of the trust we had reluctantly afforded Mr. Bush. And he did it again and again – most recently The Bail-out.
My husband and I went to the supermarket today. All that we bought was on sale but we still spent a lot of money. My husband said we have spent a lot of money lately and when it’s gone that’s it. We like everybody else have lost a lot in the stock market and things are very bad economicly right now. You are right when you say we are the ones who need advice not Obama. I hope he has the answers because it’s mighty scarey out there right now.