I don't even understand what you mean. I have read quite a few government papers (mainly federal) and they usually were well researched. I don't know how things are on a local level but the politicians in Congress have a lot of well researched data available if they want to listen (which they often don't).
Sorry - should have been more clear. I'm mostly talking about local policy, which is where most of my experience with government comes from, through many FOIA requests. Federal is much more calculated (read: slow) in comparison to local government. I've found local government to be very "we've checked the box, let's move on", which doesn't leave room for analysis, let alone the acknowledgement that analysis is even possible.
Makes sense. The way local governments deal with things like pensions is truly horrifying. Even the simplest analysis would quickly show that they are setting themselves up for disaster.
"We could add more money to the pension fund. Or we could assume a 10% market rate of return forever, and spend that money on new office chairs and computers instead. We can't get a tax increase just for those, but we could for the prospect of homeless old people eating cat food, and the next guy will get blamed for it."
They're actually setting other people up for disaster, hoping that they will already be gone when it hits.