By MARY GILBERT
President-elect Barack Obama and the expanded Democratic majority on Capitol Hill face a "paradox" as they begin their tenure, according to Bill Galston and Elaine Kamarck, authors of a new policy paper, "Change You Can Believe In Needs A Government You Can Trust," released today by Third Way, a Washington think tank. While Americans have high expectations of the new administration, particularly when it comes to fixing the economic crisis, they are also deeply skeptical of government's ability to solve the country's problems, Galston and Kamarck write: "There is nothing new about this ambivalence, but how the next president deals with it may make the difference between success and failure" for a progressive agenda.
Galston, who served as deputy assistant on domestic policy to Bill Clinton from 1992 to 1993, and Kamarck, a senior policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore, said they learned their lesson about public trust the hard way. While Clinton "made the problem of public trust in government a central thrust" of his 1992 presidential campaign, he "relegated" it "to the back burner" in 1993 and 1994, a move that the authors argue led to the failure of his health care reform legislation. Their goal with this report is to help the president-elect and Democratic leaders in Congress avoid the same mistake.
Despite the notion that the Democrats won a mandate in this election, Kamarck emphasized that skepticism is a deeply ingrained characteristic of the American electorate and that trust in government does not automatically rise with the election of a new administration. In fact, an October survey found that public confidence in government is at an all-time low, according to the paper. Just 17 percent of people now say that they have confidence in the government to do the right thing most or all of the time. "Trust shapes the limits of political possibilities," the authors explain, and going into January, it seems that the new administration will be constrained by this unprecedented lack of faith from the American people.
So what can Obama do to combat this? Galston and Kamarck outline what they call a "trust strategy" that the new administration should employ. First, the new administration must understand the obstacle it faces and communicate to the American people that their fears are justified. "Employ a narrative that acknowledges the trust deficit and signals to Americans that the new leaders understand and will effectively address their misgivings," they write. Second, the administration should unveil short- and long-term plans to clean up government. Third, Obama's team must pay attention to policy design and implementation to ensure that it communicates principles of transparency and simplicity. And finally, Democrats must move on their agenda "strategically and sequentially to ring up early successes."
The authors emphasized that the paper is not an argument against change. "The issue is not boldness versus caution," Galston explained. The issue is "where to be bold and where to be bold first."
Specifically, the authors characterized the events of the last two months as the nation's "economic 9/11" and said that fiscal policy is the one area where Americans want to see the new president to do whatever it takes to stop the immediate crisis. Moving on a stimulus package has to be Obama's first priority, they said; bold and effective action on fixing the economy could serve as the administration's first trust-building endeavor. If Obama can get that right, he may gain enough credibility to then move on to other priorities, such as health care reform and a new energy policy. But the sequence is what is most important, the authors insist, and any initiative not directly related to economic growth will have to be rolled out carefully.
Galston and Kamarck remain optimistic that public faith in the efficacy of the federal government can be restored, but they maintain that "trust must be continually earned" by national leaders, particularly the president.
Read the full report here [PDF].
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