"Fire'em All! I'll Fix Things!"

There are a couple of articles that predictably appear and are predictably savaged by those in the relevant sectors that understand the issues. Or at least want to keep their jobs.

First, are those articles where a politician or business leader decides to “take on healthcare.” They identify two or three salient problems, anoint themselves as the original discoverer of an issue that apparently went unnoticed by tens of thousands of experts in their fields, and then promise to fix those problems if just given the “magic wand.”

The author sees about one or two of these a year, laughs heartily, sighs a bit, and then erases the sectors on his hard drive that have been sullied by these supercilious electrons.

This week brings the other variety of predictable articles, published in the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly.  It is entitled “Executive Power: The political system in Washington, DC is broken, so Business Weekly asked local leaders how they would fix it.”

Keith Busse of Steel Dynamics and Tower Financial says hire me as the CEO and I will “get things done.” Let’s start over. Fire half of them. “They don’t understand the problems.” “They are a roadblock.”

Translated, make me dictator. I will get things done the way I want them done. And which half would he fire?

Some responses are similarly tyrannical and simplistic. But Joe Dorko, CEO of Lutheran Health Network, makes infinitely more sense. Build on agreements. Identify disagreements. And recognize the progress that is made. But large hospital organizations, like large universities, are closer to Gerry-rigged democracies than police states.

The author is of course cynical and dismissive of the arguments of business leaders, people that effectively run dictatorships for the good of themselves and their shareholders. That is what they do and they are darn good at it. And he has infinite respect and admiration for what they do. But their worldview ends where Washington begins.

The Founders gave us a government that is intentionally weak and power is diffuse. They did not want tyrants. In effect they courted gridlock and we are getting what they gave us. Who among us could seance them back up and tell them they were wrong?

And if you don’t like it, amend the Constitution. You only need two-thirds of the House and Senate and three-quarters of the states to agree.