The results of the U.S. mid-term elections were good news for not only the winners, but for most Americans. Yes, the federal government works better when divided, not unified. The 116th Congress—with the House of Representatives controlled by the Democrats and the Senate and White House under Republican command—may work better than the unified 115thCongress did.
The idea and evidence supporting this somewhat counter-intuitive idea was first presented to me many years ago by my good friend and collaborator, the late William A. “Bill” Niskanen. Bill was sharp as a tack. Indeed, he was one of Secretary of Defense McNamara's “Whiz Kids” during the Kennedy-Johnson years. At the ripe old age of 29, Bill had a civilian rank equivalent to that of a brigadier-general. Bill was one to speak his mind, too. His sharpness and outspokenness occasionally landed him in hot water. Famously, while operating as the director of economics at Ford Motor Company in the mid-1970s, Bill publicly opposed U.S. government restrictions on the imports of Japanese automobiles, demonstrating why the restrictions would hurt Ford. For that infraction, Bill was sacked.
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