Barack Be Good By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/opinion/26krugman.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink



Times have changed. In 1996, President Bill Clinton, under siege from the right, declared that “the era of big government is over.” But President-elect Barack Obama, riding a wave of revulsion over what conservatism has wrought, has said that he wants to “make government cool again.”

Before Mr. Obama can make government cool, however, he has to make it good. Indeed, he has to be a goo-goo.

Goo-goo, in case you’re wondering, is a century-old term for “good government” types, reformers opposed to corruption and patronage. Franklin Roosevelt was a goo-goo extraordinaire. He simultaneously made government much bigger and much cleaner. Mr. Obama needs to do the same thing.

Needless to say, the Bush administration offers a spectacular example of non-goo-gooism. But the Bushies didn’t have to worry about governing well and honestly. Even when they failed on the job (as they so often did), they could claim that very failure as vindication of their anti-government ideology, a demonstration that the public sector can’t do anything right.

The Obama administration, on the other hand, will find itself in a position very much like that facing the New Deal in the 1930s.

Like the New Deal, the incoming administration must greatly expand the role of government to rescue an ailing economy. But also like the New Deal, the Obama team faces political opponents who will seize on any signs of corruption or abuse — or invent them, if necessary — in an attempt to discredit the administration’s program.

F.D.R. managed to navigate these treacherous political waters safely, greatly improving government’s reputation even as he vastly expanded it. As a study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research puts it, “Before 1932, the administration of public relief was widely regarded as politically corrupt,” and the New Deal’s huge relief programs “offered an opportunity for corruption unique in the nation’s history.” Yet “by 1940, charges of corruption and political manipulation had diminished considerably.”

How did F.D.R. manage to make big government so clean?

FIND OUT AT THE LINK

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/opinion/26krugman.html?hp

Nice op-ed. I'm a long time fan of Krugman. He "gets" the economy waaaay better than most, imho.

Gulf Coast visiting for the holidays. We were discussing the Katrina cleanup debacle because their area is right on the coast and was hit HARD. I mentioned that the Rita and Ike cleanups were still going nowhere despite the billions of dollars allocated for them. That's when my BIL started giving me examples of the giveaways of taxpayer money to the locals, including many who were scamming the system. He explained that he felt it was systemic and due in large part to the proliferation of private contractors who were involved in the "recovery".

Bear in mind that this person is an Obama supporter who was one of the few Democrats in his area of southern Mississippi. So he's no wild-eyed Republican trying to lobby for small gummint.

Which brings me to two points:

1) How does Obama wrest control from the plethora of powerful special interests who now have their hands on all types of critical infrastructure functions that used to be the province of government?

2) Will Obama and the Democratic Congress have the will to impose strict oversight on the existing programs and the new ones that he will inevitably sponsor to promote the "greening" of America and the rebuilding of our infrastructure?

The first point highlights the degree to which our government has been taken over by private-sector corporatists who are not going to give up their power and their lucrative government contracts without a fight.

The second point deals with a reality that few Democrats seem willing to acknowledge: there is rampant abuse of government programs that are intended to help people of all incomes and ages, and this abuse will not go away without someone taking the lead in setting up anti-fraud systems that punish those who are cheating the taxpayers.

I am skeptical that the necessary changes can be made, but I'm also hopeful that Obama's vision for the future is already planning for how to deal with both problems.

;-(

It's easy to guess that the scamming contractors are "the usual suspects" -- politically connected Republican donors, who believe in the power of 'self-policing' oversight, i.e. non-oversight in everything but name.

my repug 'stranged' husband mocked someones as 'do-gooders,' and my daughters couldn't understand! Daughters are now FIRM Dems (and their father voted for Biden/Obama!)

that Obama was including Krugman in all his new inclusion decisions. A Nobel prize for economics at a time when our economy is in the toilet ought to get you an invite to the policy making or at least listened to.