Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): It turns out that data may also have a role to play in politics.
As everyone knows, Republicans and Democrats are as far apart as ever these days, especially after this month’s midterm elections. But some are trying to change that. A bipartisan group of authors has written a new book, “Money ball for Government,” a data-driven approach to policy-making endorsed by key players on both sides of the aisle, including two current U.S. senators, former White House staffers and policy experts.
Gwen Fill recently spoke to two of the book’s contributors. John Bridgeland, he’s a former domestic policy adviser for President George W. Bush, and Gene Sperling, the director of the National Economic Council under Presidents Obama and Clinton.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Gene Sperling, John Bridgeland, Republican and Democrat sitting next to each other talking about how to fix government.
One of the interesting things in this book “Moneyball for Government,” John Bridgeland, is you describe as playing tee-ball in a sandlot, that you don’t keep score, you don’t know what inning it is, and everybody gets a trophy.
JOHN BRIDGELAND, Domestic Policy Adviser for President George W. Bush: Yes.
GWEN IFILL: How is government policy like that?
JOHN BRIDGELAND: It’s a remarkable thing, Gwen. Less than one dollar out of every hundred of federal domestic spending is backed by even the most basic evidence.
In fact, government managers of programs across the federal government, only 37 percent tell us that they have significant evaluations over the last five years for their programs. So government is basically flying blind when it comes to government spending.
And Gene and I and a bipartisan group of domestic, economic and budget policy advisers across three administrations want to bring a culture of evidence-based policy-making to our federal departments and agencies and the Congress.
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