Thursday, February 09, 2006

The unique world of government public relations

From the Project on Government Oversight we learn that the US government has set up a new site called Expect More:

candid assessments of Federal programs in jargon-free language, so taxpayers can know which programs work, which ones do not, and what they are all doing to improve


Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask citizens which programs are working and which are not? Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask citizens and civil servants alike what could be done to improve a program’s effectiveness? Can you imagine what it is like to work on one of the programs singled out as ineffective?

There is no private sector equivalent for this. Can you imagine McDonald’s setting up a site showing which of its restaurants were good and which ones had been cited for health code violations? Or General Electric setting up a site listing which of its products where good and which were lemons?

Can you imagine the political jockeying that went into creating this site? Who is going to be on the effective list and who is not?

One thing is sure, the Office of Management and Budget has a snazzy new logo. Wonder if they will get a new one for FEMA?

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