Back in the late 1800s, presidents had been promising to fix the government bureaucracy for over a century. One of the biggest changes came after James Garfield's death in 1881, when a disgruntled job seeker shot him. This tragic event led to the creation of a professional, merit-based bureaucracy to replace the corrupt political "spoils" system.

Fast forward to the 1990s, and we see another attempt to fix the government. This time, it was President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore leading the charge. They started something called the National Performance Review, or NPR, also known as "reinventing government" or REGO. Clinton and Gore wanted to make the government work better for Americans by cutting regulations, reducing the federal workforce, and improving how taxpayer money was spent.

However, there were some differences between REGO and the current administration's approach. President-elect Donald Trump wants to "drain the swamp" by getting rid of professional government workers and replacing them with political appointees. In contrast, Clinton was more optimistic about changing the government for the better.

REGO wasn't a completely new idea. President Ronald Reagan had also tried to cut government waste with the Grace Commission. But REGO stood out because it actually got things done. Elaine Kamarck, who led the REGO effort with Gore, said they passed laws, cut regulations, and reduced the federal workforce by 351, 000 positions.

Even though REGO had some success, the federal debt and spending have kept going up since Clinton left office. Kamarck believes this is because government spending is driven by entitlements like Medicare and Social Security, not the size of the government.

Today, there are new people trying to change the government, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They want to use technology to shrink the federal workforce. But Kamarck and others think they should also look for help inside the government. After all, civil servants can be allies in improving the government, not enemies.

Government Makeover: Catching Up With REGO

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