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Most of the federal money spent for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid and public housing "rewards failure because it only goes to those who remain poor," Osborne says. Clinton has addressed this problem with his vows to end "welfare as we know it" and replace "a handout" with "a hand up."
Emphasizing prevention rather than cure.
New Governors in California, Florida and Illinois have emphasized the prevention of social and environmental problems. Studies show, for example, that modest investments in prenatal care and prevention of drug abuse among pregnant women can save millions of dollars in hospital treatment for crack babies and other unhealthy infants.
A self-described "child of the '60s," Osborne graduated from Stanford and began writing about public policy as "my way to change the world." As a journalist covering California's 1978 tax revolt, however, he began to question liberal orthodoxy. "It seemed to me that I was watching a watershed event -- the end of the era of ever growing government spending that had begun with Franklin Roosevelt," he recalls. "I felt that progressives needed to take the lead in reforming taxes and making government more responsive."
Osborne, who lives in Essex, Massachusetts, with his wife and four children, may soon get a chance to put some of his ideas into practice: several Clinton aides believe the President-elect will offer Osborne a White House job or the chair of a commission to "reinvent" the federal bureaucracy. Economic adviser Robert Reich cautions that some of Osborne's ideas "probably can't be implemented," but adds that "David thinks about government in fresh ways. He constantly asks how the public, as consumers of government services, can get the most for its money." Bruce Reed, another adviser to Clinton, notes that Osborne is "a good friend for Clinton to have because he doesn't hesitate to speak hard truths or to take on powerful interests."
For now, Osborne refuses to talk about a job offer that he says hasn't been made. But whatever happens, Clinton aides say, he and his ideas will be as welcome in the White House as they have been in the Arkansas Governor's mansion.