Why Policy Geeks Like Me Matter When Political Courage Finally Arrives
Give me Scott Jennings at CNN all day, but please spare me the addled ravings of Carville and the repetitive musings of Gingrich.
Eighteen years. It is hard to believe it took eighteen years. Shortly after ending my service working for President George W. Bush at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, I started publishing policy ideas as a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. One of my earliest ideas was to reverse the federalization of natural disasters by decentralizing natural disaster preparedness and response BACK to states and localities where it had been for America’s first 203 years of existence. Since the founding of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1979 by an executive order by President Jimmy Carter, the federal government has played an increasing role in more of America’s annual natural disasters—not just Category 5 hurricanes, but floods, fires, blizzards, storms, tornadoes, and earthquakes of every magnitude. As the federal government’s involvement grew, the muscle memory and capabilities of states and localities withered except in Florida, which faced multiple hurricanes most years forcing its governors to keep firm control over such events.
Eighteen years ago, I proposed that the federalization of natural disasters was weakening America's preparedness and responses to natural disasters because FEMA couldn’t possibly manage such things from Washington, D.C., and states and localities were becoming dependent on FEMA to save the day. I argued we needed to reverse that trend by decentralizing the power and money related to natural disasters to states and localities and put FEMA in a position to only support events that rose to the level of a truly catastrophic event that involved several states and/or the whole country (i.e., Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the COVID pandemic). The federalization of natural disasters also incentivized governors to do everything they could to get disasters in their states federalized, as that shifted the cost of such disasters from their states’ taxpayers to every taxpayer in America.
I repeatedly made the case for my proposal during my entire seven year tenure at The Heritage Foundation and a one-year fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), as well as through Opportunity Ohio over the last thirteen years. The idea even earned the runner up price in a national public policy competition. At times, members of Congress showed interest in my reforms, including U.S. Senator Rand Paul who had me come testify to Congress on this idea. John Stossel flew me to New York City a couple of times to be on his Fox News show to hit the issue. Unfortunately, the political will to decentralize natural disasters just didn’t exist over the last eighteen years.
On March 11, 2025, however, President Donald Trump showed political courage does still exist when he issued an executive order that finally did what I had proposed again and again since 2007. Now, you may believe that my proposals had nothing to do with Trump’s action, but I would respectfully submit to you that, as the lone voice pushing for that action, it is far more likely one of his key advisors had reviewed my proposal over the last six months and began pushing for action based on the failed FEMA responses to both Hurricane Helene and the Southern California fires.
I will be the first to admit that grinding away day-in, day-out to research, develop, and promote good government ideas can be dispiriting. It can take years for the political environment to be ripe to make the changes we policy geeks have long promoted. Opportunity Ohio is a small think tank that punches well above its financial weight, but even the mighty Heritage Foundation spent decades before Trump’s election pushing hundreds of policies backed by a $50 million+ annual budget and scores of policy experts that went nowhere in Congress year-after-year. The Heritage Foundation’s marketing team was very good at masking over the decades when very few ideas they championed actually got enacted, so large donors continued to write large checks.
Despite its and my apparent failures over the years to get measurable policy victories, policy ideas are like pieces of fruit. Someone must plant and water the seed that sprouts a tree. That tree must be cared for as it grows from a sapling to a mature tree that can produce fruit. The fruit must be protected from all sorts of weather and provided sunlight so it grows big and appealing to a possible buyer. It is only when a buyer comes along who is hungry for the delicious fruit that it finally gets plucked and eaten. If groups like The Heritage Foundation, AEI, and Opportunity Ohio didn’t do the spade work required so that the idea was ready to be plucked and enacted, policymakers with the political courage to push for change would have nothing to push (if you think legislators, governors, or presidents generate their agendas organically, I have some land in Gaza I'd like to sell you).
It is my sincere hope that Vivek Ramaswamy is hungry for ideas, so will adopt many of the ideas I have produced over the years. I know he has seen my agenda from my exploratory run for Ohio Governor in 2023. Ohioans are hungry for real change after years of status quo, nibbling on the margins mediocrity out of Columbus. Will Ramaswamy have the political courage like Trump? Time will tell.
The flip side of this challenge is that grifters are constantly creating new groups to duplicate what has already been done rather than invest in the infrastructure that already exists. Nationally, conservative policymakers have The Heritage Foundation, AEI, The Mercatus Center, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the CATO Institute to turn to for national ideas. Conservative state policymakers also have an entire network of think tanks (mini-Heritages that mostly fall under the umbrella of the State Policy Network (SPN)) to assist them in developing state reforms. In Ohio, these policymakers have Opportunity Ohio and the group I used to run from 2009 to 2011, The Buckeye Institute. Instead of investing in these groups, grifters looking for ways to raise more money off of large conservative donors develop their own groups. We saw that a decade ago with the rise of Americans for Prosperity by the Koch Brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council. SPN is even guilty of this practice, as well—see its Center for Practical Federalism that has a staff of five. It seems today every national group has sprouted state affiliates to vacuum up as much money as they can. The latest group, the State Leadership Initiative, bills itself as:
a coalition-building organization aimed at ensuring Republican-run “red states” operate in the best interests of GOP voters. In collaborating with like-minded groups, the initiative seeks to slash needless regulations and spending, appoint conservatives to important state government positions, and advance critical legislation across the country.
In reading about this group, I cannot figure out how it will do anything the existing state-based groups are not doing. Nonetheless, it likely will raise lots of money from large donors. It is grossly inefficient and undermines the vital work that I’ve and others have been doing in the state trenches. It would be far more useful to support existing work than to once again recreate the wheel in dozens of states.
Speaking of grifters, can anyone explain to me why James Carville gets so much airtime to vent his spleen? Last I checked, the guy last did anything of consequence waaaaaaaaaay back in 1992 when he helped get Bill Clinton elected president (with a fairly large assist by H. Ross Perot). Carville increasingly comes across as the crazy old neighbor who sits on his porch yelling at the kids to “stay off my lawn.” Frankly, the same thing goes for Newt Gingrich who last did anything of consequence in 1997. Can these men and their ilk ever just retire and enjoy time with their kids and grandkids? At some point, what they have to say carries little-to-no value or originality. Give me Scott Jennings at CNN all day, but please spare me the addled ravings of Carville and the repetitive musings of Gingrich.
In case you missed it, read my op-ed in the Toledo Blade from last Friday on “Ramaswamy’s Early Plans Have Promise.”
P.S. Wouldn’t it be great if egos and hurt feelings could be set aside to help America solve its financial debt problem? Many of you, like me, look back on John Kasich’s two-terms as Ohio Governor with frustration and disappointment. He had so much going his way only to throw his conservative bona fides on the fire of presidential aspirations. Instead of championing an unabashed conservative agenda, he threatened tax hikes on the energy industry thereby chasing them across the border, expanded Medicaid under Obamacare thereby exploding Ohio’s state spending, created JobsOhio thereby ushering in an era of ever-declining private sector job growth, and badly lost the only conservative idea he pushed re eliminating public sector collective bargaining. That said, Kasich’s tenure in Congress was far different. And so much better. As someone who has known Kasich dating back to 1988 and who had volunteered for him as a 12th Congressional District resident, Kasich was a giant in the budget battles during the 1990s and, with Bill Clinton, is responsible for the only balanced budget in modern American history. His work with Minnesota Congressman Tim Penny laid the groundwork for stabilizing America’s finances, if only for a year. With Trump’s interest in balancing the budget, Kasich should set aside whatever personal animus he has towards Trump and volunteer to spearhead the effort to balance America’s budget again. If offered, Trump should graciously accept Kasich’s offer of help. Nothing would do more to help Kasich cap his political career on a positive note than by stepping up when his party, his president (he still says he is a Republican), and his country need him.
P.P.S. Check out the best editorial cartoon I’ve seen in a long time below. Ouch Mike DeWine and Jon Husted!!!
