Blog — Government

Posted 9/19/12 by Common Good

Want More Jobs? Clean Up Our Messy Regulatory System

How can we create more private sector jobs? Philip K. Howard, Chair of Common Good, proposes four new ideas in the latest article for America the Fixable. “Stimulating immediate job growth,” he writes, “requires creating conditions that encourage human initiative. This requires toppling the sacred legal cows that make it costly and time-consuming to pursue almost any new project, public or private.”

Howard’s plan includes radically simplifying regulation, a "one-stop shop" for small business approvals,  an infrastructure super-authority to quickly approve certain public projects and minimizing the legal risk of hiring new employees.

Read about these reform proposals and more at America the Fixable.

"America the Fixable" is an online magazine collaboration between The Atlantic and Common Good. It provides a bipartisan forum for the presentation of bold, new ideas to reform America's governmental and legal system—ideas that need to be part of the 2012 debate.

Posted 9/14/12 by Common Good

Will More Immigrants Improve the Economy?

America the Fixable, Common Good's online forum with The Atlantic, has begun a new series of essays on job creation and the economy. Kicking off the series is a piece by Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, co-founder of America Online, and member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Case argues that by inviting more immigrants who are skilled workers and entrepreneurs, we can create more jobs and improve the economy: "For a country trying to recover from the deepest recession in generations, we're undermining our economic competitiveness when we make it harder, not easier, for talented immigrants to stay here and contribute to our economy. This has to change."

Check out Case's article here, and keep up with America the Fixable--in the coming weeks we'll feature pieces by Heather Boushey of the Center for American Progress, Lenny Mendonca of McKinsey & Company, Enrico Moretti of Berkeley, Philip K. Howard, and many others.

The series will also include results from a new, Common Good-sponsored poll of small business people on job creation.

"America the Fixable" is an online magazine collaboration between The Atlantic and Common Good. It provides a bipartisan forum for the presentation of bold, new ideas to reform America's governmental and legal system—ideas that need to be part of the 2012 debate.

Posted 8/27/12 by Common Good

Reforming Outdated Regulation Gains Political Momentum

Reviewing obsolete regulations, an issue championed by Common Good, is now gaining political steam as both parties write their platforms. It's a rare instance of bipartisan agreement this election cycle--the Obama administration and the Republican platform are both calling for reform of outmoded regulations that cost time and money without delivering intended benefits. The Republican platform proposes "a sunset requirement to force reconsideration of out-of-date regulations," while President Obama issued an executive order earlier this year "requiring federal agencies to continue to scrutinize rules on the books to see if they really make sense."

Common Good has long maintained that obsolete law and regulation impose major economic costs and prevent government from addressing today's problems. Read our Issue Brief on obsolete law and bureaucracy for a closer look at how to address the challenge of, as Philip K. Howard has put it, "democracy by dead people."

Posted 8/15/12 by Common Good

The Only Way to Fix Campaign-Finance Regulation Is to Destroy It

In an article for America the Fixable at The Atlantic, Ron Faucheux, Senior Consultant for Common Good and President of the Clarus Research Group, observes, “Insanity is doing something over and over, but expecting a different result. That pretty well describes campaign finance reform in America. The worse the system gets, the more we regulate it. The more we regulate it, the worse it gets.”

Faucheux says, “Over the last four decades, the campaign finance system has become a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption of complex, senseless, and indecipherable regulations.” To fix it, he proposes eliminating campaign contribution caps.

Caps on campaign donations were intended to “keep wealthy individuals... from dropping millions into campaign treasuries” but with billionaires contributing millions into Super PACs, these limits have not succeeded, argues Faucheux. “Contribution caps have given birth to a lot of the things today's editorial writers and good-government types detest, including super PACs and, of course, the new whipping boy of campaign finance--the misunderstood Citizens United Supreme Court ruling.”

In addition to eliminating contribution caps, Faucheux also proposes full disclosure of all political donations and expenditures and reinstituting the $50 campaign-contribution income-tax credit that existed between 1972 and 1986.

Read the rest of Faucheux’s proposal here.

"America the Fixable" is an online magazine collaboration between The Atlantic and Common Good. It provides a bipartisan forum for the presentation of bold, new ideas to reform America's governmental and legal system—ideas that need to be part of the 2012 debate.

Posted 8/9/12 by Common Good

Reform Is Not Enough: The Federal Government Needs a Complete Makeover

“Government is almost completely isolated from the public it supposedly serves. The one link that is essential for a functioning democracy—identifiable officials who have responsibility to accomplish public goals—is nowhere to be found. Who's in charge? It's hard to say.”

That’s the current state of American government, according to Philip K. Howard, Chair of Common Good, in an essay for “America the Fixable” at The Atlantic. Howard says our leaders have forgotten how to lead: “Sealed off from personal responsibility by accumulated bureaucracy and thick walls of special interest money, our government is covered by a putrid mold of cynical gamesmanship and everyday hypocrisy. People scurry around its baseboards seeking short-term advantage, but big change is so inconceivable as to be laughable.”

Read the rest of Mr. Howard’s essay here.

"America the Fixable" is an online magazine collaboration between The Atlantic and Common Good. It provides a bipartisan forum for the presentation of bold, new ideas to reform America's governmental and legal system—ideas that need to be part of the 2012 debate.

Posted 7/11/12 by Common Good

Big Campaign Spending: Government by the 1%

Lawrence Lessig of Harvard is the latest contributor to America the Fixable, with an essay on funding elections. "A tiny number of Americans," he notes--"0.26 percent--give more than $200 to a congressional campaign. 0.05 percent give the maximum amount to any congressional candidate. 0.01 percent give more than $10,000 in any election cycle. And 0.000063 percent -- 196 Americans -- have given more than 80 percent of the super-PAC money spent in the presidential elections so far."

It is Lessig's position that this situation allows small groups of self-interested people to roadblock government initiatives that would be in the public interest.

Lessig's full article can be read here.

"America the Fixable" is an online magazine collaboration between The Atlantic and Common Good. It provides a bipartisan forum for the presentation of bold, new ideas to reform America's governmental and legal system--ideas that need to be part of the 2012 debate.

Posted 5/25/12 by Common Good

Think Before You Regulate

The following is an editorial from the May 23rd edition of the Providence Journal, making the case for a proposed Rhode Island bill that would require agencies regularly to reexamine old rules and eliminate obsolete ones.

Review the Regulations

Obviously, a modern society needs plenty of regulations. But they can pile up too thickly and willy nilly. Far too many rules start out ineffective, or become so as they become outdated. Some contradict each other. The associated red tape can slow or reverse economic, technological and other advances with costly, time-consuming and confusing compliance mechanisms.

Rhode Island is a worse regulatory jungle than many states, in part because of its tradition of responding to controversies with an approach of "when in doubt, pass a new law or create a new regulation" that lacks cost-benefit analysis. (The unwieldy and very expensive fire code passed after the Station nightclub fire is an example; the fire would not have happened if the old law had been enforced.)

The small firms that create the majority of jobs in Rhode Island are the hardest hit by this regulation over-population. Making things even more challenging is that businesses must deal with the quirks of 39 cities and towns squeezed into such a tiny state.

Clearing out the regulatory underbrush could help the state's economy a lot over the next few years. A bill in the General Assembly (H-7770), aimed at helping small business, would do just that, by requiring state-agency officials to regularly review current regulations using cost-benefit analyses, and have them eliminate or fix the ones whose costs to business exceed their benefits to the public. The bill would mandate that within four years of enactment agencies would have to review all rules for their impact. After that, new rules would be reviewed every five years.

This legislation deserves speedy passage. We also hope that the General Assembly starts holding regular "sunset sessions" in which to review the need for the laws upon which the regulations are based.

While continuing to protect the public, Rhode Island can be made a considerably easier place in which to do business, increase wealth creation and in doing so provide more resources to protect the public.

The legislature should enact H-7770 in the remaining days of this session. That alone could spur job growth.

Posted 5/7/12

Making New York Work: What Gets in the Way? (A Common Good forum)

On May 7th, 2012, Common Good co-hosted a forum with the Manhattan Institute and the Citizens Budget Commission entitled “Making New York Work: What Gets in the Way?” The event, which focused on the bureaucratic and legal impediments to sensible government in New York City and State, was the first in a series of planned forums exploring the structural challenges facing New York; future events will focus on, among other things, the business climate and education reform.

Common Good founder and chair Philip K. Howard made the opening remarks, calling attention the myriad ways in which sensible government decision-making is thwarted by open-ended mandates, byzantine bureaucratic requirements and the proliferation of overly-specific and inflexible rules. Next came a panel discussion, moderated by Howard Husock of the Manhattan Institute, and featuring Howard, Port Authority President Patrick Foye, New York City Human Resources Commissioner Robert Doar, and City Operations Director Elizabeth Weinstein.

Each panelist brought a unique perspective to the debate.  Foye derided the counterintuitive environmental review requirements that massively delay eco-friendly upgrades to the Bayonne Bridge.  Commissioner Doar spoke about the City’s rigid civil service system, which ties managers’ hands by preventing sensible hiring and firing decisions.  Weinstein concluded by describing the astonishing complexity of City government, and the unwieldy and inefficient ways in which it interacts with itself.  Following their talks, the panelists answered questions from the audience, and the evening concluded with a brief reception.

Posted 4/26/12 by Common Good

Start Over: New Ideas to Overhaul Government, Regulation, and Litigation

Read Philip K. Howard's collection of essays--proposing bold, big ideas to fundamentally reform our governmental and legal systems. Available for download.

Click here to view and download the 20-page Start Over publication.

Posted 4/25/12 by Common Good

Providence Journal: Rules without responsibility

The following editorial was published in today's Providence Journal:

The drowning last June of Marie Joseph, 36, in a state-run Fall River pool has elicited the response that such sad events often do -- the imposition of complex changes but not the expectation of greater responsibility. Guidelines for supervision of such public facilities by lifeguards and other staffers have long been clear.

Incredibly, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Swimming Pool, the body of Ms. Joseph, who apparently couldn't swim, was undiscovered for two days after she drowned. The excuse given was that the water was murky.

But if it were that murky, why didn't some staffer notice? Indeed, state officials said the water did not meet state standards and that the pool shouldn't have been opened last year.

So the people who use these public pools will suffer as officials try to show that they're doing something. Officials are suspending the use of all water slides at the state-run pools. Less fun for the low-income folks who tend to be the biggest users of these pools. That is despite Massachusetts Recreation Commissioner Edward Lambert's saying that the slide at the Fall River pool did not appear to be a direct factor in Ms. Joseph's death.

Meanwhile, the depths of 11 of the 24 pools run by the state will be lowered to 5½ feet by June 23, and security cameras installed, The Boston Globe reported.

The remaining 13 will eventually also be transformed if money is found. More lifeguards will be hired and there will be a couple of weeks of additional training. And, of course, a new administrative structure will be created to oversee all this, with the new post of state aquatics director.

The net effect will probably be fewer pools and fewer days of operation, as money and other resources are diverted for these changes -- all aimed at giving the appearance of preventing tragedies that attention and common sense should block in the first place. So fewer people will probably have a chance to enjoy this healthy exercise.

Without a culture that re-emphasizes personal and institutional responsibility, such changes won't measure up to the publicity associated with their creation.