In praise of better government.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at windmills - Bureaucracy in government agencies

The unfortunate thing about the recent sequester debate is that by pitting antigovernment Republicans against pro-government Democrats, it left no room for those who believe both in the importance of government and in the need to trim the fat from government agencies and to make them more effective in performing their missions.

As to the fat, here's just one example. In 1940, there were more than five million farmers in the United States. In 2012, that number had fallen to fewer than a million. Yet the Department of Agriculture has 5,000 more employees than it did in 1940, when there were more than five times as many farmers.

As to agency effectiveness, in the past few months, we have had one story after another about foul-ups at the Department of Veterans Affairs--of disability applications taking more than a year to process and other similar outrages. In 1946, I was among the ten million or so World War II veterans discharged from the military, most of us seeking one or more benefits including college tuition, disability pensions, housing loans, or unemployment compensation. My tuition was paid promptly and my pension came through in a matter of...