While President Joe Biden is busy trying to sell the public on the idea that government can deliver for them, a more candid view of what government offers comes from the Cato Institute’s David Boaz.

Looking back on government responses to the coronavirus, Boaz writes that government — by design, nature, and practice — is incapable of quickly and effectively addressing disaster situations…despite the time, money, and effort poured into planning and training for them:

…there’s a larger issue here. Governments and bureaucracies don’t respond well to changing challenges. Government agencies don’t have the right incentives. They lack necessary knowledge. They operate in a system that rewards longevity, seniority, and inertia. Protected from competition, they become sluggish. Their rules, regulations, policies, and procedures are always backward-looking, based on yesterday’s problems. Private entities suffer from these afflictions too, but competition pressures them to respond more quickly to change. As numerous scholars have pointed out, these problems are systemic in government.

And no amount of presidential salesmanship, government checks, or funding for even more government (as Biden’s American Rescue Plan) will change that.