Obama - Getting the Big Things Wrong
Early in 2008, economist Lawrence Lindsey published a book titled What a President Should Know … But Most Learn Too Late. Though Lindsey, along with coauthor Marc Summerlin, had worked in the George W. Bush White House, the book sought to give advice that could be useful to a president of either party, on matters of policy and management alike. I wrote a positive review for the New York Post, which appeared in truncated form.
Overall, though, What a President Should Know didn’t get too much attention, and I think it’s a safe bet that Barack Obama never read it. And that’s too bad, because some of Lindsey’s advice would’ve spared Obama, and the American public, from some needless, counterproductive aggravation.
In particular, Obama would’ve benefited from a memo from Lindsey (much of the book is in the form of memos) titled “Unsolvable Problems: Pick One and Solve It.” Lindsey advised the incoming president that certain problem areas — such as energy, health care and education — have been intractable because they are loaded with unavoidable tradeoffs (cheap energy versus clean energy, for example).
The memo explained: “You have a fundamental choice between conserving your political capital by doing something small in a variety of areas to make it look like you are addressing problems or actually making one big step toward solving one of these unsolvable problems.” Lindsey recommended the latter: “picking one key problem that you care a lot about and throwing all your energies into it.”
Obama, by contrast, has been trying to bring about major change in both energy policy (with the cap-and-trade proposal, now languishing in the Senate) and healthcare policy (with Obamacare , now being shouted down in town halls), on top of his massive stimulus spending (which the public seems to want stopped). In so doing, Obama has spread his political capital thin, let his energies dissipate and largely left it to Congress to figure out what’s going to be in all this landmark legislation.
Lindsey offered no opinion as to which problem area to prioritize, but his most compelling policy suggestion was on energy: impose a straightforward carbon tax, rather than the inefficient and hidden tax that is a cap-and-trade system. A carbon tax has merit on environmental, national-security and fiscal grounds, plus the benefit that it’s harder for special interests to manipulate than cap-and-trade. But since it’s clearly a tax, it would require some heavy spending of political capital to get enacted.
Being an idea backed by various free-market conservatives, a carbon tax would’ve gotten Obama some diverse ideological support. Or perhaps he might have focused on healthcare, but with some emphasis on trying to clear away regulatory burdens and perverse tax incentives rather than just expanding government. If Obama had focused on one big thing, rather than multiple big things, he would have alleviated fears that his overarching aim is to build up big government. On the other hand, Republicans can count themselves fortunate that Obama evidently did not read What a President Should Know.