EDITORIAL: Biden’s bigger government won’t improve efficiency

President Joe Biden held a photo-op in the Oval Office on Monday to sign an executive order aimed at pushing the federal government to improve its customer service practices. It’s a fine idea — but also highlights the muddled incoherence dominating this administration’s agenda.

The order addresses three dozen “customer experience improvement commitments” involving 17 federal agencies. Among the improvements, according to The Hill:

— Improving responsiveness at the Transportation Security Administration and allowing Americans to renew passports online.

— Streamlining the process for student loan recipients to manage their accounts and cutting back on red tape when small businesses apply for loans and grants.

— Consolidating forms for those seeking to tap disaster relief while allowing the use of smartphone photos and virtual inspections for such claims.

— Making it easier for older Americans to claim their Social Security benefits online and creating personalized portals for Medicare recipients to keep tabs on their benefits and accounts.

“The bottom line is that we’re going to make our government work effectively,” Mr. Biden said. “This will go a long way toward restoring faith in government.”

That’s debatable. But there should be little question that the goal of the order is noble: Americans deserve a government whose agencies are accessible and responsive.

Yet while professing concern on a micro level about improving the efficiency and customer service at federal agencies, the president on a macro level aggressively promotes policies that will almost certainly result in the opposite. Mr. Biden’s domestic agenda involves one of the largest expansions of the Beltway regulatory state in this nation’s long history. There is virtually no corner of the federal government that would be smaller and less intrusive if the Biden administration persuades Congress to enact the president’s spending plans. This is patently inconsistent in the long run with streamlining the bureaucracy and simplifying taxpayer interactions with federal agencies.

“There is considerable empirical and theoretical research on the size of government and its correlation to public-sector performance and economic outcomes,” economics professor Livio Di Matteo wrote recently for The Fraser Institute, adding that “there seems to be an association between smaller governments and greater efficiency in public service provision and often better performance outcomes.”

Mr. Biden and his team insist they can rewrite the laws of economics by ramping up the Treasury printing presses and increasing government dependency. Their utter surprise at soaring inflation is instructive. Expect the president’s efficiency initiative to suffer because of a similar disconnect.