Living in the greater Baltimore-Washington Metroplex (and thankfully outside the actual beltways), I have had the chance to see the federal government at relatively close range. Close enough to have discerned, many years ago that, unfortunately, many physical laws apply to government functions. And, with a "mass" is that large, it's difficult to move and, once moving, just as difficult to steer.

NASA is a great example. When created, NASA was a lean, purpose driven, organization but, after the Apollo program (actually, in the midst, Apollo's 18, 19 & 20 never flew) budget cuts slowed things down significantly. Managerial decisions replaced engineering and science and, in many respect, budget goals replaced scientific. (Compare Apollo 13 with Challenger)

There are still agencies that work well, and those that do not. We have all heard of the issues with the Veteran's Administration problems. The Dept. of Defence, on the other hand, for many of it's problems, actually works rather well. To understand the problems within an agency (self inflicted and otherwise), the first 809 Commission report (available on line) is a wonderful document, setting forth issues and suggested remedies. It is huge, and often a slogging read, but very enlightening. One example is that the Defence Contract Audit Agency does not clearly define what they mean by "audit". Hence the suggestion, "Define audit". The rest are not that easy, but you will find mandated reports, offices, and functions that are no longer needed, and those that should be instituted or redefined. I still remember, the cancellation of the group tasked to inspect salt pork for occupation troops in Cuba... by President Kennedy.

There are organizations such as NIST and NIH performing functions that can never be replaced by commercial entities, but there are other functions where the opposite is true. In the 2010 census, the Census Bureau spent millions to implement electronic data collection, and failed. Then contracted private industry to collate the paper forms. This week, it was reported that, again, the 2020 census may, of necessity, use the paper Plan "B".

We must face the fact that there are functions that government must and should perform. There are functions that may be best initiated by government but, at some point, should be divested to the non-governmental world. And, lastly, those that should never be governmental. The problem is to have the wisdom and foresight to distinguish them. The desire of the population is not necessarily the discriminator. As Henry Ford said, "Ask people what they want and they will tell you 'faster horses'".