how to run government like a business
a right-wing article of faith says that government should be run more like businesses in the private sector. the rationale is that practices and actions are made good and without prejudice through the free market.Â
this past week the federal government - the u.s. department of agriculture specifically - told the government of the state of maine - governor paul lepage and maine's department of health and human services specifically - that maine cannot recover overpayments the state made through the food stamps program to needy people through this maine agency's mismanagement by going to the people the state paid the money to. the federal government cut a deal with the state to lessen the amount the state owed the federal government, but it told maine's governor and maine dhhs it could not collect the money from needy people in maine.Â
it is appalling that the state of maine, after mismanaging this social safety net program, and after being told by the federal government in 2011 that they were not managing the program properly, and after not working with the federal government to fix the problems, and after overpaying needy people, it is appalling that the state of maine would arrive at a solution whereby it would go to needy maine people in an attempt to recover money through its negligence overpaid. what the fuck is the state of maine thinking?
that right-wing article of faith says government should be run like business. government - state, federal and municipal - is not like business. if government were like business its ceo would take ownership for the mistakes the organization made, it would fix the problems, and it would not penalize its consumers for its own mistakes.Â
