Let Them Eat Tape!
April 29th, 2007If I became President tomorrow, the first thing I’d do besides receive a briefing from the CIA and pray for help from Harry Truman’s ghost would be to appoint a few bureaucracy-busters to each Cabinet department and have them try and weed out some of the longer and sillier bits of red tape because things like this are ridiculous.
As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide. Titled “Echo-Chamber Message” — a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again — the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans “practical help and moral support” and “highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving.”
Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent. In addition, valuable supplies and services — such as cellphone systems, medicine and cruise ships — were delayed or declined because the government could not handle them. In some cases, supplies were wasted.
Bureaucracy is inevitable with any government but there are certain departments whose bureacratic nonsense should be reduced heavily because they affect us all. The USDA, health and human services, FEMA — these are all prime examples of offices that need to be quick and efficient more than, say, the FCC.
Briefly: This is interesting but nothing new or particularly important. I just hope 20/20’s report on it May fourth doesn’t lead to a huge firestorm that takes away from all the things that really matter, but it will.