Bradley Tusk has been hammering this point for years, and he’s not wrong: if you’re an entrepreneur trying to win or survive a regulatory fight, Washington, D.C. is the last place you want to be. He’s seen it firsthand — the federal government is slow, dysfunctional, and unpredictable. You can spend millions lobbying Congress or the agencies, only to be told to wait for another study, another hearing, another election. By the time Washington acts, the innovation window has already closed.
That’s why Tusk tells startups and innovators to put their energy into the states and cities. Ridesharing didn’t succeed because Congress passed a bill — it succeeded because local campaigns in places like Austin, Chicago, and New York broke the taxi monopolies. Online gaming wasn’t legalized by a federal committee — it was won in statehouses, ballot measures, and regulatory boards. Time and again, state and local action beats federal inertia.
And on that point, Bradley Tusk is dead right. Washington is a swamp of red tape, lobbyists, and bureaucrats who couldn’t find their way to a real solution if their pension depended on it. Entrepreneurs, innovators, job creators — your battles are better fought in the states, in the cities, where the decisions actually affect people and where change can happen fast.
But let me go further. If we’re serious about draining the swamp, then it’s time to stop talking and start moving Washington out of Washington.
Think about it. Why is the Department of Agriculture in D.C.? The closest those bureaucrats have been to a farm is the salad bar at Whole Foods. Move it to Iowa, where family farms and ag tech actually exist. Why is the Department of Energy in the Beltway? Relocate it to Texas or Oklahoma, where the real energy economy lives — oil, gas, renewables, and nuclear innovation. Interior? Put it out West, where public lands actually matter. Education? Park it in a heartland city where parents are fighting tooth and nail for school choice and better outcomes.
And here’s the bonus: forcing the bureaucrats out of their marble palaces means they’d actually have to live among real people. Imagine that — federal employees in neighborhoods where folks worry about grocery bills, not government grants; where school boards debate reading scores, not regulatory schemes; where people measure life by paychecks, not policy memos. It might just teach the ruling class a thing or two about the country they’re supposed to serve.
This isn’t just symbolism. It’s economics. Put these agencies in the states, and you get closer oversight, faster decision-making, and rules that reflect reality instead of Beltway theory. You cut costs, too — it’s a lot cheaper to run an office in Des Moines than in downtown D.C.
And let’s not forget history. Our Founders never imagined a government that centralized this much power in one city. They designed a federal system that left power in the hands of the states and the people. Over the years, Washington has gobbled that up, building a permanent bureaucracy that serves itself instead of serving the country. Decentralizing government is not radical — it’s a return to the original vision of federalism.
Markets thrive when rules are clear, consistent, and local. Government stagnates when it’s concentrated, bloated, and detached from reality. Which would you rather have? America’s greatest bursts of growth — from the industrial age, to the tech revolution, to the energy boom — didn’t come from a regulation dreamed up in Washington. They came from entrepreneurs, investors, and workers who built things from the ground up, in the states and communities where the work gets done.
The real reform won’t come from another blue-ribbon panel or a presidential commission. It comes from re-anchoring government in the states, closer to the people, and shrinking the Washington bubble down to size. That’s how you get growth, that’s how you get accountability, and that’s how you get America moving again.
So yes, Bradley Tusk is right to tell innovators: don’t go to D.C. But let’s take it one bold step further. Don’t just avoid Washington — move Washington out, department by department, back to the states where it belongs. That’s how you drain the swamp. That’s how you unleash free markets. And that’s how you restore the American dream.