Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Here is an incomplete list of Federal agencies. Keep scrolling. And scrolling. (Or look here and keep clicking.) There are hundreds of them, and more created in every major piece of legislation.
I'm sure that a good reason can be found by someone for every agency, bureau, office and board on that list. I'm sure they are full of hard-working and dedicated public servants. And I'm sure most of them need to go if liberty is to be restored to the citizens of the Republic.
With such a target-rich environment one wonders why this Congress hasn't picked an agency a week to (attempt to) close. (Sure would keep those Tea Party freshmen busy while the adults get on with the serious debt-ceiling kabuki.) Even President Clinton talked a good game about cutting the Federal bureaucracy down to size. Eric Pickles had a go at the tangle of quangos in the UK. It can be done, and it ought to be done.
So, which agencies are the first on your list for bureaucracide?
- Comment (15)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Jul '11
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Eliminate federal agencies?? Heck, lets just start with departments:
Agriculture
Commerce
Education
Energy
HHS
Homeland Security
Housing and Urban Development
Labor
Veterans Affairs
Whichever necessary activities these departments are engaged in (not many) can be turned over to one of the remaining departments.
Oct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
I don't disagree.
And at State, I'm sure we can dispense with:
Jun '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
It's the only part of the economy where productivity increases, made by adding new technology, make costs go up, not down. Because, their job, at its core, is devouring budgets. "Productivity" is way up.
Oct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Someone could make a career out of examining and the elimination of excess in this area. What a job that would be ....
Save, the government is not well known for tearing down its own house.
Edited on Jul 29, 2011 at 3:30pmOct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Forget the lists. Just kill the Boener, et al approach, and refuse to increase the budget, aka, the debt ceiling. The House, after all, isn't one third of the government, when it comes to money, they are 100 percent of the government, regardless of what the statist quislings insist. Unless the administration chooses to make it's authoritarian approach to government a public fact.
Mar '11
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
So the Boehner bill is law when the House passes it? Would be nice, if true.
If true, the Ryan plan would be law, or CCB, and we wouldn't need to raise the debt limit.
If true, they could start on the CandE list - minus veterans affairs.
Let's change the Constitution to a Parliamentary Democracy :-)
Edited on Jul 29, 2011 at 4:39pmAug '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Nice graphic. I recognized Max Weber but I had to Google it to find out that the other guy is Franz Kafka (who I've read, but don't know by sight).
Oct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
David Williamson
So the Boehner bill is law when the House passes it? Would be nice, if true.
If true, the Ryan plan would be law, or CCB, and we wouldn't need to raise the debt limit.
If true, they could start on the CandE list - minus veterans affairs.
Let's change the Constitution to a Parliamentary Democracy :-) · Jul 29 at 4:36pm
Edited on Jul 29 at 04:39 pm
It cuts both ways. IF the House refuses to introduce a bill or pass it raising the debt ceiling, then it is a done deal. Who else has the Constitutional authority??
Mar '11
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
As an out-of-work architect, I say get the government out of housing first. Therefore, eliminate HUD, the FHA and sell off all of Fannie and Freddie's assets immediately.
Aug '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
HUD, FHA, Fannie and Freddie have all been an objective failures but none of them are even talked about being eliminated. The ideology of need for goods or services which created these programs has to be defeated before we can eliminate the programs.
Oct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
"HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business." No, really.
Even if HUD actually was doing these things - which it pretty obviously isn't - why is it the job of the Federal government to do them?
So, if I'm reading the budget (warning, PDF) right, that's about $48 billion in discretionary savings right off. HUD has about 10,000 employees, so there'll be layoff expenses in that first year, but those should just about be covered by a sale of Ginnie Mae's $14 billion in net assets (warning, PDF).
Gosh, this is easy. What's next?
Nov '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
A harder game would be finding what we want to keep.
Mar '11
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Departments of Defense, Treasury, Justice and State; the only constitutionally mandated cabinet departments. All of their responsibilities could be significantly scaled back as well.
Oct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Charley Davis
Departments of Defense, Treasury, Justice and State; the only constitutionally mandated cabinet departments. All of their responsibilities could be significantly scaled back as well. · Jul 30 at 11:35am
I slimmed down State above. As for Justice, let's go back to the pre-70's situation. Pre-1870's, that is, when there was an Attorney General, a handful of assistants and the rest was outsourced. Do we really need Federal prisons, Federal marshalls, Federal drug and firearms enforcement? $28 billion in spending for the DOJ, and 112,000 employees (or equivs) (PDF).
Of this, the FBI accounts for $8 billion and 33,000 positions - but less than half of these are agents (PDF). It is too delicious that the FBI was the product of pure Progressive empire building by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte...
Oct '10
Re: Have We Reached The Federal Agency Ceiling Yet?
Who said this?
"The impulse among the American people toward a responsive federal government, coupled with an idealistic, reformist spirit, characterized what is known as the Progressive Era, from approximately 1900 to 1918. The Progressive generation believed that government intervention was necessary to produce justice in an industrial society. Moreover, it looked to "experts" in all phases of industry and government to produce that just society."
Howard Zinn? Noam Chomksy? Jonah Goldberg?
How about the FBI. Reading the that history is fascinating: "When the Bureau was established, there were few federal crimes. The Bureau of Investigation primarily investigated violations of laws involving national banking, bankruptcy, naturalization, antitrust, peonage, and land fraud. ... The first major expansion in Bureau jurisdiction came in June 1910 when the Mann ("White Slave") Act was passed, making it a crime to transport women over state lines for immoral purposes. ... The years from 1921 to 1933 were sometimes called the "lawless years" because of gangsterism and the public disregard for Prohibition ... in 1970 alone, an estimated 3,000 bombings and 50,000 bomb threats occurred in the United States."