America's government can't be run like a business. That's a feature, not a bug.

America's government has lots of problems. Private-market magic is not the solution to them.

Jared Kushner and President Trump.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Here's a new idea no one has ever proposed before: Let's run the U.S. government more like a private business.

Okay, I kid. Everyone has proposed this. Pretty much every president in recent memory has wanted to reorganize the federal government, cut redundancy and waste, inject competition and market forces, and remake the government into a lean, mean, efficiency machine. Progress does happen — former President Obama created the U.S. Digital Service to help the government better develop technologies, procedures, and systems. But it's rare.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.