GOPideas... ideas done right

Intellectual honesty is a rare trait and nearly extinct in politicians, but Mitch Daniels has it and should be praised for it. As discussed in earlier posts, many modern Republicans have been lacking in intellectual honesty. Specifically, so-called fiscal conservatives that found no objection to runaway spending and record deficits between 2001-2007 and as soon as Democrats controlled Congress and then the White House, they were criticizing the lack of fiscal restraint by “tax-and-spend” Democrats. Also, Democrats have done a terrible job of pointing out Republican hypocrisy on health care, as Republicans loved the idea of a huge federal entitlement when they were in charge. Yet, Daniels has restored a bit of my faith by canceling a contract with IBM to privatize Indiana’s welfare benefits system.

Yes, that’s right, the most pro-business, fiscally disciplined governor in the country admitted that a privatized contract was an inferior option to a system that includes public employees. The Governor’s rationale: “it was very flawed in concept.” Let’s be clear on what happened: Daniels tried to outsource a government function to a private company and the private company failed to deliver a better service --- so for all the “the private sector can do any government function better than the government” conservatives, this is definitive proof that such a belief is erroneous. 

The reason why it is erroneous is for the same reason that Daniels admitted the idea failed, which is the same reasons that most medical experiments fail and why most business fail: people are human, complex systems are hard and people make mistakes. The best part of this is the reaction: universal praise by Democrats, but Daniels still holding strong to his premise that a.) the earlier system was a failure, b.) that was due to many of the employees that were eliminated by the transition and c.) innovation should be tried.

We should all hope to have more public servants like Daniels: innovative enough to devise new systems and methods to implement policy, courageous enough to fight for them, committed enough to determine whether the ideas are working, honest enough to step up and admit when they are not and determined enough to try again.