Click to visit the “Solutions: Making Government Work” archive.
The Solutions column was created to take Dina Rasor’s 30-year knowledge of why the government wasn’t working and, slice by slice, come up with realistic solutions to fix long-term problems.
The column spent its first year looking at solutions for government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Pentagon. These solutions were offered up as reforms during the time both political parties claimed that they were interested in governance to make the government work better.
However, during the course of writing weekly columns on fixing government, it has become more and more clear that any legislative and executive branch attempts to reform the system can be easily thwarted by the massive influence of money in the system. It has become obvious, more now than in the past, that the burgeoning problem of influence peddling with money will doom real reform.
In this presidential election year, it is virtually impossible to expect serious governance from our elected and appointed officials in the federal government. Therefore, the Solutions column will spend the rest of this year, until the election, following the money that keeps realistic reform from succeeding and concentrate on exposing and explaining how self-dealing is the No. 1 problem that is preventing our government from working.
Self-dealing is a term usually used in business when a fiduciary makes decisions that are in his or her own self-interest instead of the company’s. So, the Solutions column will look at our federal “fiduciary agents” and follow where the money is going, who it is buying and how the government is affected by the self-dealing corruption.
There are many journalistic efforts this year to expose campaign contributions to see where they are from and where they are going through databases and aggregate numbers. The Solutions column will, instead, follow specific examples of individuals who are self-dealing for money for campaigns or jobs outside the federal government and follow the self-dealing trail to see how various parts of the government have been corrupted or injured by the self-dealing.
Solutions: Making Government Work
Archive of all columns:
Government Secrets: Bureaucratic Wars on Who Gets Prosecuted
Six States Have Tried Community Controlled Power: What Works?
The Breaking of a Power Monopoly: Community Choice?
The Anatomy of the Perfect Whistle-Blower
Possible New Cold War? High-Fives in the Halls of the Pentagon
Why Truthout Is “Unreasonable”
Slow-Rolling Massacre Redux: Start Small, Think Big and Make a World of Difference
Slow-Rolling Massacre Unfolds in the Shadow of Shocking High-Profile Shooting Sprees
Can We Keep Scandal Fatigue From Thwarting Reform?
To Push for Meaningful Defense Cuts, We Need Unusual Partnerships
The Privatization of US Foreign Policy: An Interview with the Author of The Foreign Policy Auction
Giving Thanks for the Right to Disagree, But Also the Freedom to Work Together
Forget Petraeus: The Real Scandal Is Generals’ Corrupt Weapons Procurement
Now What? Think Campaigning Is Hard? Try Governance
Forget the Election and the Politics: What Will Make FEMA Work for the People?
Allowing Sequestration Defense Cuts May Right Our Listing Ship of State
Romney’s $2-Trillion Defense Increase Won’t Buy More Defense, Just More Waste
Lack of State and Federal Oversight of Offshore Fracking Could Imperil the Santa Barbara Coastline
Veterans First … and Their Dogs, Too
Tax-Exempt Boy Scouts Hide ‘Morally Straight’ Pedophiles in Plain Sight
The Bain Way: Let the States Pick Up the Tab on National Debt?
Lisa and Me: Birthdays and Republican-Style Medicare
Your Must-Do Assignment for This Year, Read This Chart and Pass It On
Congress as Enabler: The Pentagon Can’t Kill the M-1 Tank, Only an IED Can (Part Two)
Defense Companies Use Congress to Save Their Profits, No Matter What (Part One)
Hide the Ball: Romney’s Long History of Hiding His Exorbitant, but Questionable, Business Practices
Three Ploys the Department of Defense Uses When Their Budget Is at Risk
Thumbing Their Noses at Us: Election-Based Nonprofits Flouting Their Charters (Part One)
In Florida, Minimum Mandatory Sentencing Laws Fuel Push for Private Prisons
For-Profit Colleges Are Bankrolling Romney to Keep Student Loan Money Flowing
For-Profit College Reform: How Democratic Power Lobbyists Helped Water It Down
For-Profit Education: Milking Students and the Taxpayers for Corporate Profits
America’s Top Prison Corporation: A Study in Predatory Capitalism and Cronyism
Prisoners’ Families Are Paying For State Prison Kickbacks In Order To Phone Their Loved Ones
Pilots as Lab Rats: The Reprehensible Risk-Taking on the F-22 Raptor
“Breathing While Latino” Laws Boom For Private Prison Profits
America’s Top Prison Corporation: A Study in Predatory Capitalism and Cronyism
Prison Industries: “Don’t Let Society Improve or We Lose Business”
Self-Dealing and the War Service Industry, Part III: The Payoff
Self-Dealing and the War Service Industry, Part II
Self-Dealing and the War Service Industry, Part I
Generals Who Don’t Just Fade Away: The Newest in Self-Dealing Maneuvers
Lockheed: The Ultimate Pay-to-Play Contractor
Corporate or Reform Roots: Who Do You Want to Oversee Medicare?
Not Even a Fig Leaf: The Blatant Self-Dealing of Chairman McKeon
Self-Dealing in Government: No. 1 Impediment to Reform
War Is Too Tragic for Weak Balance of Powers
Federal Pay: Another Battle in the War on the Middle Class
Reclaiming Civilian Control: How to Keep Generals as Warriors, Not Politicians
Pentagon Solutions: Slices of Change Could Save Billions
Defender of the Capitalist System: Department of Defense Worst in Competitive Contracts
Defense Budget Flip: Dick Armey – Cut the Budget, Obama – Slow the Increase
Self-Dealing: Even Ex-Federal Watchdogs Are Doing It
The Pentagon’s Biggest Overrun: Way Too Many Generals
TV Analysts’ Collusion With the Military: Disgraceful but Legal?
Would You Blow the Whistle? Many Say Yes, but Perils Abound
F-35 Fighter is Latest in Long Line of Wasteful Weapon Failures
Don’t Embarrass My Moneyed Friends! As Fundraising for Congress Goes Up, Hearings Go Down
The Pentagon Flunks Another Audit
Panic in the Pentagon: Can’t Pass Weapons Testing? Army Chief Says to Get Rid of It
“Should Cost” vs. “Did Cost”: How the Military-Industrial Complex Swindles Billions of Our Dollars
Heads Up, Supercommittee: Here’s How to Cut Billions From Overpriced Weapons
Out of Iraq: What Will the War Service Industry Do Now?
Occupy Berlin: In the Shadow of the Reichstag
Iraq War Lessons Learned? Keep Rumsfeld Away From All Things Defense
Waste and Fraud Problems? Cut the Investigators and It Will Disappear!
The Department of Defense’s Unending Nightmare: Pass an Audit by 2017?
Iraq: We Lost $1.2 Billion in Equipment Going in; How Much Will We Lose Getting Out?
Guess What? It Is Cheaper to Use Federal Government Employees Than Contractor Employees
Defense Spending: The Worst Way to Make Jobs
Part Five: Obama’s FEMA: First Look at How It Worked
Part Four: Hurricane Katrina and Beyond
Part Two: FEMA and Disaster: A Look at What Worked and What Didn’t From a FEMA Insider (1993 – 2000)
Part One: FEMA and Disaster: A Look at What Worked and What Didn’t From a FEMA Insider
How the DoD Allows Contractors to Grade Themselves and Write Their Own Contract Terms, Part II
Learning the Hard Way: The Whistleblower From the Madoff Scandal Tells How to Reform the SEC
Office of Special Counsel Must Change Climate and Protect Whistleblowers
Solution: SEC Whistleblowers Unleashed: Will the New SEC Whistleblower Law Rules Really Work?
Solution: Weapons That Will Never Die: We Need to Stop the Expensive Reincarnations (Part II)
Solution: We Need to Stop the Expensive Reincarnations
Solution: Reduce Influence Pedaling in Government Contracting
Solution: Track Government Contractors that Have Engaged in Misconduct
Solution: Fix the Buying and Selling of the Pentagon (Part II)
Solution: Fix the Buying and Selling of the Pentagon (Part I)
Solution: True Oversight (Part II)
Solution: True Oversight (Part I)
Solution: Reform the Pentagon Even if You Feel Overwhelmed by the Mess
Solution: Stop Having Government Do Business With Risky Contractors
Solution: Reduce the Use of Private Contractors
Solution: Fix the Pentagon by Creating an Independent Audit Agency
Solution: Reform the Pentagon and Cut Its Budget
Solution: Encourage Companies and Organizations to Step Up to the Challenge in the New Green Economy
Solution: Cut Costs of Radioactive Waste Stabilization Programs Through Competition
Solution: Don’t Let Wall Street Get Away With It! Protect and Reward SEC Whistleblowers
Solution: Stop Having The Pentagon Overpay for Everything
Vocalo Interviews Dina Rasor | “Fixing the Revolving Door”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $125,000 in one-time donations and to add 1400 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy