Who's On First, What's On Second and Just About Everybody is on Third

I have always loved the classic Abbott and Costello baseball routine, "Who's On First, What's On Second, I Don't Know Is On Third." It came to mind today after reading some recent articles regarding how the D.C. political class tries, and fails, to solve problems. It reminds of the old saying, "If everyone is in charge then no one is responsible." Consider the following political class comedy acts:

1) At the heart of the recent economic disaster and recession were the highly interrelated housing and banking industries. Think about how many government entities currently touch the housing and banking markets in this country:

• Housing and Urban Development
• Federal Housing Authority
• Fannie Mae
• Freddie Mac
• Ginnie Mae
• FDIC
• Federal Reserve Board
• Treasury Department
• House of Representatives banking and housing committees and subcommittees
• Senate banking and housing committees and subcommittees
• Probably other Federal entities that I do not even know about and not including the similar type government entities at the state level.

All of these organizations involved in the banking and housing industries and not one of them saw the impending biggest financial disaster since the Depression until it hit them all in the face. Everyone was in charge but no one was responsible.

2) Vice President Joe Biden has been in the Mideast the past few days trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the peace negotiation table. With the announcement that Israel is going ahead with more settlement construction in East Jerusalem, the visit is not going well. However, besides this recent event, consider the number of government organizations attacking this problem:

• Secretary Hilary Clinton and the State Department
• Special White House Envoy/Czar George Mitchell and his staff
• Vice President Joe Biden and his staff

Should not have Hillary been in the Mideast with Biden on this trip? If she is, she is getting no press which is so unlike her. Again, everyone is in charge and no one is responsible for what is a seriously deteriorating situation.

3) The March 15, 2010 issue of Business Week had an interview by Charlie Rose of Elizabeth Warren. Ms. Warren is chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel which was created to oversee the bailout of the banks and review the regulation of financial markets. We have reported her views in the past which always seemed honest, grounded and well reasoned. In this interview, Mr. Rose asked her where a proposed financial consumer protection agency should be based. Her response: "There are seven bureaucracies in Washington right now that each own a piece of consumer financial protection. Bloated, inefficient, and either ignored or ineffective or captured by the large financial institutions." Doe not sound as if the job is being done well now if it is bloated, inefficient, or ignored. Again, so many people in charge and no one is responsible, according to Ms. Warren.

Imagine how much better things would be if we just started over with a zero based, ground up approach to defining what government should do and how it should do it. We would save valuable tax payer dollars by getting rid of redundancy and make everything more efficient, both domestically and internationally. Much of this is proposed in Step 1 of "Love My Country, Loath My Government," see page five for details. Hopefully, we could then streamline government functions, make one person and one organization both in charge AND responsible. Right now, we have Who's on First, What's on Second, and a whole bunch of "I Am In Charge, Not Responsible and Yet Clueless" on third when it comes to the political class.



Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.