1970 to 1979: Computers and Software Begin Creating Wealth - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 133

Political Failures
Outside of software, the decade was rocked by two political events that shook
U.S. citizens' confidence in the federal government and lowered respect for their
highest officials. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in
disgrace due to accusations of accepting bribes, some of them in his vice presid-
ential office.
The second and even more discouraging event was the August 9, 1974, resigna-
tion of President Richard Nixon in the aftermath of the famous Watergate scandal.
Had he not resigned, Nixon would have faced an impeachment trial.
Note
Watergate involved a break-in at the Democratic National Commit-
tee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Eventually, 43 tri-
als and convictions occurred, revolving around several of Nixon's
staff. The famous hidden tape recorder in Nixon's office provided
evidence of a coverup. There was a mysterious 18.5-minute gap
in the recordings where one of the tapes had been erased. Neither
the gap nor the missing information was ever fully explained. After
resignation, Nixon was given a blanket pardon by President Gerald
Ford.
There have been other scandals in the past, but these two resignations by the
Vice President and President less than a year apart raised serious doubts about the
integrity of politicians. Even today, confidence is low for members of Congress
and other national officials.
These doubts are often justified for a divisive Congress that frequently issues
partisan diatribes with no substance or data. Time and again, Congress has stalled
until a day or two before some major catastrophe such as a fiscal cliff (massive tax
increases) or sequester (massive spending cuts) takes place.
Both of these problems were caused by a failure by Congress to perform due
diligence or to use any predictive analytics of the consequences. Indeed, Congress
failed to act to prevent the sequester, and neither the House nor Senate properly
assessed the potential harm from this failure.
Without an operations research group, Congress cannot properly apply predict-
ive analytics to financial and economic issues. This often results in the passing of
legislation that can be harmful and have little benefit. The Congressional Budget