Nextgov

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The Muddy Middle

August 15, 2004 Don't look for any serious discussion about the size and role of government to emerge from this presidential campaign. Sometimes, presidential campaigns and the administrations that follow them revolve around grand debates about the state of the federal government. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt attacked Herbert Hoover's failure to address the ...

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Kerry, Edwards unveil plan to cut managers, trim bureaucracy

August 4, 2004 In separate appearances Tuesday, John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democratic contenders for president and vice president, unveiled a series of proposals to overhaul the federal bureaucracy, including a pledge to slash the ranks of managers and supervisors at agencies. In a campaign swing through southern Wisconsin, Kerry spoke about ...

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Better Management, Naturally

August 1, 2004 If the Defense Department wants more effective civilian managers, it's going to have to create them. In early July, Navy Secretary Gordon England, who is heading up the Pentagon's effort to design a massive new civilian personnel system, met with employees to discuss progress on the project. He offered little ...

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Kerry backs military, intelligence overhaul in convention speech

July 30, 2004 John Kerry made the case that he would be an effective commander-in-chief and a leader of reform in the federal government -- especially with regard to the country's intelligence establishment -- in his speech Thursday night accepting the Democratic nomination for president. Kerry returned repeatedly to the subject of his ...

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Into the Woods

July 15, 2004 A week at Cub Scout camp provides some lessons about bureaucracy. Recently, I had the opportunity to spend the better part of a week with my son at Cub Scout camp. I love the outdoors, so I was looking forward to it. And in all the important ways, it didn't ...

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Details, Details

July 1, 2004 John Kerry hasn't shown much interest in even the basics of management reform. Earlier this year, the National Treasury Employees Union asked John Kerry to answer some questions about how he intended to lead the mammoth federal bureaucracy if he were elected president. Here's what the Kerry campaign said about ...

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Numbers Game

June 15, 2004 The process of ginning up a reform total has become an end in itself. Here's a little quiz: What do the following numbers represent? $424 billion $108 billion $88 billion Those are the amounts of money that Presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush, respectively, pledged they could slash from ...

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CIA Director Tenet resigns; to leave post in July

June 3, 2004 President Bush announced Thursday morning that CIA Director George Tenet had submitted his resignation and that Bush had accepted it. "He told me he was leaving for personal reasons," Bush said at the White House. "I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of ...

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Accountability Lite

June 1, 2004 More talk and less action is making government the perfect place to shirk executive responsibility. "These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them, and I take full responsibility." -Donald Rumsfeld "A nation, especially one doing the business of empire, needs high officials to ...

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The Meaning of Service

May 15, 2004 There's nothing like a visit to Arlington National Cemetery to provide a new perspective on the significance of military service. Sgt. Don Ballman wasn't what you'd call a warrior. In his years in the Army-which he spent in Germany after the Korean War-Don was never called on to share a ...