MY PRESCRIPTION FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

If this blog headline strikes you as a bit presumptuous, good.  It is.

I have no business thinking I will ever be in charge of government, either at the state or federal levels and either by appointment or election.  Plus, I am retired. 

But I do have a few prescriptions for what I believe would constitute good government.

So, here goes.

1. Good government should be marked by asking one important question:  Is there a role for government in regard to this problem and, if there is, how should a government response be designed to achieve the desired result?

Too often, this question is not asked, much less answered.  Thus, we have to pay for government “solutions” to every problem.  Does government have a role in some cases?  By all means, yes.  But not all cases.

Asking this hard question and providing a fact-based answer is a first step toward good government.

• Good government should be about promises kept, not just promises made.

Making promises is easy.  Keeping them is hard.  But if promises are just talk, then why listen?  Make promises, then keep them.

Let me add one clarification here.  If a candidate makes a promise on the campaign trail or an agency head makes a promise in running a program, then finds out he or she cannot fulfill that promise, tell the public the truth.  In straightforward facts, describe why a promise cannot be kept.  That honesty and clarity builds credibility.

• Good government should be about achieving results, not just proposing them.

The “promises kept” and “results” items may seem similar.  And, I suppose they are.  But they also are different.  This relates actually to running programs, not just talking about running them.

Results matter.  Measure those who serve in elected or appointed office by the results they achieve, not the results they promise and don’t achieve.

Or, if by some chance, if results don’t materialize, elected or major appointed officials could add to their credibility by “admitting” the failure and explain why it occurred.

• Good government should be about the search for middle ground, not extremes in public policy.

Too often, government these days is about the ability to win at all costs.  Call the other side stupid.  Impose your will.

[As an insertion, pardon this reference back to an “old” issue, national health care policy.  I continue to use it because, despite the years, it still stands as an excellent example of how not to write legislation.]

Consider the Affordable Health Care Act, which came to be called ObamaCare.  It was, in fact, an apt moniker, not the Affordable Health Care Act.  The program was imposed by Obama and his Democrat supporters in Congress without one Republican vote – and this was not because Republicans were just opposed to Obama.  It was because the Act was an over-the-top, one-size-fits-all, government-run prescription for health care in America.

Was it all bad?  Of course not.  Millions of Americas got health coverage as part of new government spending, but at what cost?  A huge spike upward in health premiums, both for those newly on a government program, as well as those in the private sector.  After all, some payers had to support those new to health care coverage.

The better answer on health care and any other pressing public policy challenge is to legislate from the middle.  Work with reasonable elected officials on both sides of the political aisle – yes, there are some — to develop real health care reform and real solutions on other issues…. for ALL Americans.

• Good government should be about ethical and honest behavior, not bending the truth.

This seems far from the case today.  A government by and for the people should be honest in its approach to the “people” – us. 

Conclusion:  These prescriptions might not always make good sound bites.  But they do make good government.