Hard to Get Anything Done with Divided Government:
But perhaps we should rethink “gridlock”. I would argue that the Clinton “success” was due in large part to “gridlock” rather than in spite of it because Clinton wasn’t able to pass some of the more egregious public policies that would pervert incentives, distort information, and stifle innovation. Instead, under Bush II we have had a more united government (until the back end of his administration) and we got an escalation of the warfare and welfare state. The claim that these past 8 years are years of “inaction” let alone “laissez faire” is ludicrous — just look at the discretionary spending, the level of intervention, and the protection of special interests.
And this:
Just because we can do something, it doesn’t mean we should do it. The debate last week (and the subject of the segment on Sunday Morning) was all about whether or not Congress could in fact pass a piece of legislation. As the debate developed, the question of whether or not we should be doing what the legislation called for the government to do disappeared.
