Philip K. Howard: Code Red for red-tape America and what to do about it

 
Politics now has a dizzying quality. The roller-coaster of Trump policies―now we do this, now we do the opposite―is being matched by wild swings in the Democratic positions, led by socialist Zohran Mamdani's victory in the New York City mayoral primary. Just imagine, as liberal columnist Joe Klein mused, the staggering inefficiency of a municipal grocery store operating under union work rules: “Sorry, I only restock on Thursdays."
 
Centrist Democrats are trying to mobilize an “Abundance’’ agenda to cut through red tape to build housing and infrastructure. That's a step in the right direction, but pruning the red-tape jungle doesn't work by itself. Officials must have authority to make trade-off judgments.   
 
The unimaginable tragedy of the flood in Texas on July 4 probably could have been averted in numerous ways. But several serious mistakes can be traced to the compliance philosophy of the red- tape state. Consider:

A firefighter on duty asked dispatch about issuing a CodeRED alert but was told that that couldn’t be done could without a supervisor's approval. Some federal rescue workers weren’t mobilized immediately because of a new edict requiring the approval of the Homeland Security secretary for all expenditures over $100,000.
 
Nothing works without human judgment. What's missing in the political cacophony is the simple realization that things don't work because Americans are no longer allowed to roll up their sleeves and make things work. This is not a flaw that can be fixed by DOGE's indiscriminate cuts, nor by simply aspiring to Abundance. The red-tape state fails because it is a version of central planning―smothering teachers, principals, doctors, nurses, officials and all of us in red tape everywhere.   
 
New leaders, new policies and new reforms are not sufficient. American government requires an intervention. Like it or not, the only cure is to transition away from the red-tape megalith to a governing framework activated by human responsibility. This is not radical. It is the founding philosophy of the Constitution, a document of 7,500 words―in contrast to the 150 million words of current federal law and regulation.

Honoring human responsibility will also go a long way to overcoming the populist resentment that is fueling political craziness.

Philip K. Howard, a New York-based lawyer and civic leader, is chairman of Common Good, a nonprofit legal-and-regulatory-reform  organization.

He describes the principles and framework of what's needed in his forthcoming book: Saving Can-Do: How to Revive the Spirit of America (Rodin Books, Sept. 23).
 

Writing in The Washington Post, Dominic Pino cited Mr. Howard’s book Not Accountable on why public-employee unions should be considered unconstitutional.
 

Common Good’s work on why DOGE's cuts are misguided was highlighted in The New Yorker, and in interviews with WORLD and the America Trends Podcast.

Mr. Howard also discussed government reform with Daniel Wiig of the NYCLA Amicus Curiae podcast and on the The Aaron Renn Show.