One of the favorite

expressions of the verbally challenged political hacks in

this country - the ones who can't think of anything

original to say and figure that any trite phrase which

sounds good on the stump will do - is, "Why

can't we run government like a business?"

We have all heard it said

- we may have said it ourselves - for it does

seem that this is one thing that some of every political

stripe can agree upon.

But, the bottom line is

that government can not run like a business.

The main reason is that

government is not a business.

For starters, businesses

are supposed to make a profit - and none of us

really want government to make a profit.

(Of course, there is some

difference of opinion on that point, depending upon

whether you are looking at the state or federal

government and what your partisan leanings are: In

government, profits are called surpluses and, at the

state level, Republicans tell us they are bad because

they fund all those "pork" projects that

Democrats believe are really the "meat and

potatoes" their constituents demand; at the federal

level, the Republicans and the Democrats, while differing

on the specifics, both tell us they are good because they

fund the projects we need but can't justify during the

years and years of deficits we have struggled through.)

Then, there is the fact

that in most businesses - especially the "Mom

'n' Pop" operations which make up the vast majority

of America's small businesses and were the beginning of

most of the big ones that exist today - the top

level management is fairly stable while the employees

come and go, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes not.

In government, though, the

executives (read that the politicians) are elected for

set terms and may be voted out of office on a regular

basis, while the employees (read, civil service

bureaucrats) are on board for the long haul and can just

thumb their noses at the politicians with a "I'll be

here after you are defeated" attitude.

(One of the more

controversial elements of Gov. Roy Barnes education

reform package - the elimination of the so-called

"teacher tenure" law - was aimed at

combating this problem: Good teachers - like good

administrators who gave up their tenure protection

several years ago - don't need the crutch of tenure

to succeed, while bad teachers can't survive without it.)

Now, some people who say

"government should be run like a business" are

probably sincere, and there are some tools used in

business that could be useful in government.

But, many people who say it

are simply voicing their frustration with what they

perceive as a government grown too big.

What they overlook, though,

is that government is still charged with the

Constitutional responsibility of "creating a more

perfect union, insuring justice, promoting the general

welfare, providing for the common defense, and securing

the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our

posterity."

That is a big job -

one which could sometimes be done more efficiently and

more effectively, to be sure - but still a big job

that demands big answers.

In the late 1970s, there

was an argument in this country over returning control of

the Panama Canal to Panama. The same conservatives who

argued the loudest against big government were the same

people who were most vehement about the U.S. keeping

control of the Canal.

What they overlooked was

the fact that it took a pretty big government operation

to defeat yellow fever, strong-arm local entities who

objected, clean out a rain forest, and build the Canal in

the first place.

Businesses had dreamed of a

"pathway between the seas" - but, if it

had not been for government which overcame many of the

problems that businesses could not address, there would

never have been any Canal to argue over.

Why can't government run

like a business? Probably because they are not the same

and never will be.

[Lee N. Howell is an

award-winning writer who has been observing and

commenting upon politics and society in the Southern

Crescent, the state, and nation for more than a quarter

of a century.]