As Doug Mataconis noted earlier today, Tim Pawlenty gave what was supposed to be a major speech on the economy. Doug was underwhelmed by the promises in the speech about economic growth promises.
And then, in discussing place to cut, he noted the following:
We can start by applying what I call “The Google Test.”
If you can find a good or service on the Internet. Then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it.
The post office — the government printing office — Amtrak — Fannie and Freddie were all built for a different time in our country. When the private sector did not adequately provide those services. That’s no longer the case.
I honestly not trying to be a smart a**, but what the frak does that mean?
The Defense Department is on Google.
The CIA has pages on Google.
Fire Departments, police stations, and any number of other things are on Google.
What is he talking about?
All I can figure is that he means if you can find a service that is done both by the government and by a private business (i.e, the post office v. UPS) then the federal government ought not be involved (which raises it own set of issues). What that has to do with Google, however, is baffling. One could have found UPS or Fedex in the yellow pages twenty year ago back when if someone said “google” they went “googol,” which was just a funny word for a big number. As such, the “Google test” strikes me as both too clever by half as well as ultimately nonsensical.
