I’m just saying the best way to tackle those issues is to forget about stupid, greedy tax cuts for the rich and juice up the economy with efficient government, targeted spending on services like quality child care, good schools and health care for people who can’t afford it on their own.
Bret: I wish I could think of a single recent example of efficient government. The two words belong together like “energetic sloth” and “ferocious Chihuahua.” That’s why I think Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is going to stay fairly popular with most of the public, even as it does a lot of damage to government operations and wrecks the careers of honorable civil servants.
Gail: You may be right, but I’m predicting popular revulsion, sooner or later.
Bret: A better motto for Democrats, I think, is “Effective government,” which is primarily about delivering the services people need or expect and not just about saving money, which seems to be the central criterion of “efficiency.” For instance, if Trump keeps pursuing his tariff mania, it’s going to disrupt supply chains and drive up prices. If the Department of Education is essentially shut down without a good plan to replace its essential functions, especially when it comes to all the money that goes to special ed, it’s going to disrupt the lives of a lot of families without a clear Plan B. If Trump takes a hatchet to the Food and Drug Administration or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. keeps droning on about the fictitious link between vaccines and autism and then there are more measles outbreaks like the one that’s underway in Texas, that’s also going to remind people of the government they need.
We’ll see. So what’s keeping you optimistic these days?
Gail: Well, on the political front I am comforted by what appears to be a general ineptitude among the Republicans’ teeny-tiny majority in Congress, especially in the House. I’m also gonna soothe myself with giving donations to some charities I follow. It’s always a pleasure to be reminded that while we’re stuck with a lot of repulsive people on top, we’ve got squadrons quietly volunteering their time to tutor kids, plant trees in the park, read to the blind — the list goes on and on.
Your turn.
Bret: I can’t speak highly enough for the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, to which my dear friends Paul Healy and Didier Malaquin introduced me. Hunts Point, in the Bronx, is among the poorest neighborhoods in New York City; it also produces some of the most inspiring and ambitious young people I’ve ever met. The alliance helps structure the kids’ time, underwrites their scholarships, introduces them to Shakespeare and does dozens of other things to set them on a solid, upward path.
