Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

by Marc J. Dunkelman

But the precedent set during Nixon’s tenure now applied in Carter’s. Was it good for reformers to strip the secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare of the power to set his own bureaucracy’s priorities—particularly when the secretary was as liberal as Joe Califano? The federal judge overseeing this single case had essentially become the agency’s puppeteer.65