The private sector has long been absorbing duties that belong to the government—and that pattern is intensifying.
Advocates had hoped that the Supreme Court would step in, but that’s not going to happen.
There’s a fiction at the heart of the debate over entitlements: The carefully cultivated impression that beneficiaries are simply receiving back their “own” money.
While the national debate over the Affordable Care Act remains deadlocked in dispute, local-level reform trends towards bipartisan convergence.
If civil servants are pitted against businesses they become more innovative, and secure most of the contracts put out for bid.
Critics who claimed to be shocked—shocked—when a Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate adopted issue positions from someone else all do the same themselves.
Corrections is the ultimate human service—and it can be done more cheaply and more effectively without locking so many people up.
It's not identity that makes the World Series team so special to me. It's love for others.
Setting out to shrink the size of agencies at all costs can actually raise them—as Louisiana's child-welfare system found.
Anyone looking for fresh public-policy approaches from Democrats, Republicans, or reform conservatives is bound to be disappointed.
Hawks and military leaders say it can't be done—but from the back office to the battlefield, there's plenty of excess spending.
Getting it to zero will require some painful choices, but not every federal dollar deserves to be fought over.
Entitlement programs, from food stamps to Medicare, don't see unusually high cheating rates -- and the culprits are usually managers and executives, not "welfare queens."
Turn out the light in the soda machine. Fix the salt-spreader on the snow plow. The best way to save is to ask public employees for their ideas.
Even the staunchest left-wingers should admit there's waste in the system, but cheaper often isn't the same as better government.
The trick isn't to figure out how to do everything Washington does better. It's to figure what Washington role should be in the first place.
From Facebook to private schools to security guards, citizens are replacing traditional government functions with a "virtual state."
Officials can deliver both high-quality public services and low tax rates to citizens by providing services for which outsiders are willing to pay a premium.
Regimes around the world are under pressure to deliver more and cost less. Here's a plan for how to actually make that work.