Paul Light Quotes on Government (5 Quotes)

The president is less and less influential, and his approval numbers are still low. A lot of these members of Congress are saying, 'I need to stand up on my own'.

Our research shows that Americans are over-confident in the ability of government to respond. But there are many highly probable scenarios that involve an almost complete breakdown of social order. Katrina showed us that all those structures we depend on can be swept away.

You go to the FBI where they investigate the answers to your forms, there are only so many FBI agents available to do that. Then you go to the office of government ethics, where they clear your financial disclosure and cure any conflicts of interest you might have,

The basic question is, will the public listen to the government in the future, and that's a critically important question. It is entirely possible this could have a significant impact on the public's willingness to listen to their government, police, fire and charity officials in the event of another catastrophe in another city.

The Office of Personnel Management's Plum Book, published at the start of each presidential Administration, shows that there are more than 3,000 positions a President can fill without consideration for civil service rules. And Bush has gone further than most Presidents to put political stalwarts in some of the most important government jobs you've never heard of, and to give them genuine power over the bureaucracy. These folks are really good at using the instruments of government to promote the President's political agenda, ... And I think that takes you well into the gray zone where few Presidents have dared to go in the past. It's the coordination and centralization that's important here.