Friday, May 29, 2009
Another nominee withdraws
Beth Garrett has withdrawn as nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, apparently because the vetting process has become so harsh. That's a shame; I've known Professor Garrett for a long time, and know that she would have been a very positive addition to the Treasury Department.
One of the reasons why statism will not succeed in the United States to the extent that it has in many European countries is that so few really good people want to work in government for deep-seated historical reasons. It is therefore unwise, even if politically expedient, for an administration with a manifestly statist program to set up procedures that discourage the few good people who would otherwise work in the government from doing so.
7 Comments:
By 
Viking Kaj, at
Fri May 29, 12:50:00 PM:
Government is a vast organized armed conspiracy designed to defraud us of our liberty and treasure.
The founding fathers understood this, but we seem to have missed the point.
Actually I think we are better served by having talentless hacks and deadlock in Washington rather than the alternative.
God save us from Ivy leaguers in Government who think they know better than the common man and who are prepared to act on their convictions.
Live free or die !
By Viking Kaj, at
Fri May 29, 12:59:00 PM:
And just in case I didn't make the point the first time...
Government is the problem, not the solution.
We need less people in government, not more, because we need less government period. We can't afford the one we have now.
By 
, at
Fri May 29, 02:38:00 PM:
I suspect this isn't isolated, but part of a plan .... Obama & Co don't want to give Little Timmy help. It's months in and Treasury still has huge holes. Rahm is effectively running Treasury -- by barking out the objectives.
Link
By , at
Fri May 29, 03:30:00 PM:
Interesting. I wonder if it should be said that vetting does not make up for bad judgment in selections, and over rigorous vetting does nothing but drive away good nominees. They've created three problems where there should only be one.
By filbert, at
Fri May 29, 04:57:00 PM:
Say rather that government becomes the problem when it tries to be the solution.
At its best, government is a referee. At its worst, it is a slaveowner.
We've been going the wrong way for quite some time now. The Reagan interregnum was a brief, incomplete respite in a long, long decline that started way before B.H.O. was ever even born.
By , at
Sat May 30, 01:50:00 PM:
Hope and change. The wrong kind but, hey, it's Chicago politics.
By , at
Sat May 30, 02:07:00 PM:
More H&C. Big day yesterday in administration dumping of unpopular news. It's going to be tougher and tougher to hire people, vetting aside, if those people have to agree to strict speech controls.
