Yes, and the problems are probably still worse than this. Because integration means integrating _requirements_, leading to determination and priority of requir

Yes, and the problems are probably still worse than this. Because integration means integrating _requirements_, leading to determination and priority of requirements. The current organizational structure doesn't seem to have anyone responsible for even coordinating that. But even if there were, they would need terrific knowledge of each agency's internal systems and legal requirements to determine what is and isn't necessary. And enormous authority, meaning both credibility and power to dictate, to get their determinations to stick. Absent someone looking over the process, each agency will just "require" everything they might need or want. Leaving something out is risky, unless you know a lot about what you are doing and what will happen next and trust your management. Even if they had all those latter characteristics, bureaucracies don't do risk. We all know how complexity grows exponentially. I bet the requirements document for this thing doesn't exist, and if it did it would be a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Here is my wild theory: The possibility this could succeed died the day Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for Secretary of HHS. Not that Daschle himself is special, though he is pretty bright. But he was slated for an unusual joint role, running HHS and a White House appointment running the health care effort. A position like that might have had access to the specialized knowledge to know what needed doing and the Presidential delegation of power to get it done. If IRS says "we must have X" and Daschle KNOWS they don't because a real expert knows they don't, he can get them in line or they can explain the problem to the President's chief of staff. Here is the wild part. Daschle was canned, inexplicably, over a truly stupid tax issue (didn't declare a car service as income), while others had far more serious issues waived (Geithner lied about CASH income despite instruction to declare it). Why? I speculate, precisely because the role he designed for himself was remarkably powerful, and effectively outside any review because of the complexity and specialization of its task. Wouldn't the President want someone with the power and knowledge to implement his most important policy? Yes, but not someone beyond his control. Politicians are about power. JFK didn't use the legislative skill of Johnson because he feared Johnson would serve Johnson's interest, not Kennedy's. Once Obama and his people realized that Daschle could become effective President, and Obama something of a titular head of state, they shivved him. It's all speculation. But it is all plausible enough to suggest why government doesn't work. Massively complicated projects like Google work because its people are, by and large, working for a common purpose on tasks that are commonly understood under common accountability. Government and bureaucracy are fundamentally divided in purpose and understanding. The components can be united by power and knowledge, but by its very nature the system resists establishment of such power and knowledge.