During a speech to the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics in November of 2010 Alan Krueger, the newly appointed Chief Economist at the Treasury Department, described what he believed was the best form of policy making. According to Krueger policy making under crisis was most effective. His chief example of good crisis policy making?
TARP
Certainly there is plenty of debate over the merits of TARP. Many believe it was an emergency measure which was necessary to avert economic disaster on a scale not seen since the great depression. Many others believe it was yet another massive government intervention in the markets which ushered in a new era of big government never before imagined.
However, there are not many out there, even among its supporters, who hold that TARP is an example of our legislative process at its best. Massive government policy initiatives born out of crisis are often viewed by the public, and this is especially true of TARP as even Krueger admits, as unfavorable. Large scale reforms implemented on the fly are not often touted as desirable.
Of course this mentality that policy making through crisis is preferable seems to completely acceptable and perhaps even widespread within the Obama administration. After all one of the most famous, or perhaps infamous, philosophies to emerge from this administration, courtesy of Rahm Emanuel, is that a serious crisis should never go to waste.
Clearly there is an identifiable pattern in policy making preference coming through in this administration. Alan Krueger is merely the latest messenger for that preference. It is clear that so long as the Obama administration is here so is the desire for crisis legislating.
Yet, as I said before, crisis legislating is not something the American public has readily adopted as ideal in the past. Thus it remains to be seen if this is something they want at all. It remains to be seen if Americans will ever want sweeping legal changes or massive new federal programs instituted under the threat of emergency.