One Nation, Under God, Sustainable … : When I was a lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission during the Carter Administration, I worked on a document attempting to wedge the power to block factory closings into the agency’s statutory mandate to curb “unfair trade practices.” This reminded me of that. …
P.S.: There will undoubtedly be a parallel effort to incorporate “social, economic, and other requirements” into the U.S. health care system. Just as the EPA would like to move beyond its dowdy mission to stop pollution, health experts will tell us it’s just too 20th century to just focus on simply curing people who are sick. Anybody can do that. We need to treat the whole social system that creates the risk of disease, etc. It’s a new paradigm! … Will EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) fight it out to see which gets to be the Department of Fixing Everything? …
P.P.S.: Why think so small? The emergence of global terrorism now poses a threat to both environmental harmony and public health. If we were truly serious about “reinventing government” we would merge EPA, HHS, and the agency that employs airport screeners into a new Department of Homeland Sustainability. Get Biden on it. …