At the federal level it is obvious what needs doing. Slash and burn. Departments of education, interior, energy, health, labor, commerce, and transportation should be eliminated asap, as should the EPA and USAID. Yes, completely eliminated. The Department of Justice needs to be radically reduced in size and power; eliminate the ATF and DEA, for starters. The FBI has completely overstepped its original mandate and needs to be reined in. The State Department can be cut by one-third almost immediately, and closer to one-half in a couple of years. DOD needs to focus on its mission and shed programs, offices, and employees that have nothing to do with defense. Lawyers. My God, does DoD have lawyers. Slash and burn. Get rid of all the environmental nonsense in DoD. Drop the vast, corrupt, and bloated domestic PX network. In a time of WalMarts and Targets, why have a PX? Negotiate a discount for military personnel. The same with VA hospitals, most of which are substandard; get veterans a voucher system they can use at private hospitals. The CIA? A complete overhaul and reduction in the massive stateside bureaucracy which interferes with and stifles CIA's proper role overseas. NASA? Privatize as much as possible of the space program, keeping in government hands only the most secret and sensitive operations. Don't get me started on Homeland; it needs a radical downsizing or even a splitting apart.I couldn't have said it better - and I've said at least 80% of it. Aww, you've almost read the whole thing - go read the rest.
The comments over there seem to be in agreement that this ain't going to happen without a "reset". Too many vested interests that won't give up their money. Same thing as we all say.
State shbe cut by 2/3. We don't need an embassy in Togo or New Guinea nor in every cockroachstan. Visas should be sent to the Immigration service, consular officers are a joke. Our econ officers are a bad joke. The political officers at state are worse than useless and their reporting consists of translating or stealing from local papers.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we have Energy, Agricultural, Education? The CIA needs to be split into competing agencies. Eliminate Homeland security.
I heard that our econ officers in places like Georgia (Republic of not the State) were preaching the wonders of statism and the governments there told them "Are you crazy?? We just escaped that!"
DeleteAmen ... big fat bloated FEDGOV way beyond intended by our forefathers need to have its budget and its powers completely gutted. Why do we put it up with it? States need to speak up and say no to Federal counterparts, and mean it ....
ReplyDeleteUnited me arse .... more like commonly held in thrall
He left out HUD, FNMA, FNMC, VA mortgages. Why is the .gov in the housing business? If having a house is a must-have veterans' benefit, do a one time buy-down of the interest rate (pay points) to 2% on a 40-year assumable mortgage. Write one check, no massive bureaucracy required. Long term low rate assumable mortgage makes the property more desirable, hence worth more when the veteran sells it.
ReplyDeleteOr, we could just pay members of the military what they're worth....
As much as the .gov slash and burn is necessary, that doesn't fix the spending problem - it's coming from entitlements. If the entire executive, legislative, judicial and military branches of the fed.gov were totally defunded and shut down tomorrow we still wouldn't have enough money to pay for everything.
All this will get fixed as we reconstitute the country after the collapse/revolution/CW2/.gov purge. Only problem will be getting through the collapse/revolution/CW2/.gov purge alive.....
My personal picks would include the FCC and department of Commerce, but it really doesn't matter. This: If the entire executive, legislative, judicial and military branches of the fed.gov were totally defunded and shut down tomorrow we still wouldn't have enough money to pay for everything. is the big one. If every cent of government spending except for the major entitlements were eliminated, we'd still be in trouble.
DeleteFirst, even though I picked on HUD and housing (everyone thinks HUD stands for "Housing and Urban Development;" it's actually "Hopeless, Useless and Depressing," which also describes most federal departments...) Taking a rabid chainsaw to the fed.gov is something we're going to have to do, along with some Congressional knuckle-smacking (as Sister Josephine used to do with her ruler) because that's the secondary source of the freedom infringements we perpetually combat (the primary source is incompetent legislation from Congress that enables the way-too-many executive branch departments to run amok in the first place), but while that's an aggravation, and will probably take some sort of revolution - peaceful or otherwise - to resolve, the real frustration is the "fixability" of entitlements.
DeleteEntitlements can be fixed, not immediately and not without some pain, and, unfortunately, not without courage. Which we seem to be woefully short of in That Shining City on the Hill (and almost everyplace else, too, from what I can see).
It will be fixed, ultimately, but in the messiest way possible, I fear. Which reminds me: anyone know where I can find a few cases of .308 at a good price?