Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Back when the Republican primaries were competitive, I had concerns about Mitt Romney's lack of details on tax reform and reducing government spending. He claimed loyalty to both principles all the time without giving anything more than marginal examples of things that were non-controversial and would cut spending by mere bits.
Today, however, National Review has a good analysis of Romney's much more specific comments delivered recently to a group of donors at a private fundraiser. He mentioned specific things he would do to simplify the tax code, along with a 20 percent reduction in rates. He also mentioned that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would be on the chopping block.
Finally! HUD is probably the worst performing department in the federal government -- and it also had a big hand in the housing bubble bursting.
Many conservatives also mention the Departments of Education, Energy, and Commerce as candidates for abolition. Mitt mentioned the Department of Education, but he said he would either downsize it or roll it into another department (translation: "I'll do whatever won't cost me votes").
Romney still sounds like he really won't go that far. To my mind, there are at least four departments you can outright eliminate, and several other cabinet positions that should be consolidated
- Department of HUD - Eliminate
- Department of Commerce - Eliminate
- Department of Energy - Eliminate
- Department of Education - roll into HHS and downsize both
- U.S. Trade Representative - roll into the State Department
- Office of Director of National Intelligence - Eliminate
- Ambassador to UN - roll into the State Department
- EPA Director - Demote to an agency head rather than cabinet official
Anyone have other departments or agencies you'd like to see abolished our consolidated? It's a fun exercise for those of us who believe in limited government.
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Apr '12
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
This is a great whistle-stop tour. Peter Robinson's valediction astride a motor cycle is also a highlight.
Dec '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Eliminating the department of energy is unwise. It can most likely be reformed, but somebody has to manage our nuclear capabilities. If we want more nuclear power, we need the people that regulate and inspect them.
Sep '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
The first place to start is eliminating the gross (and frequently hilarious) overlap between the U.S. Forest Service (Department of Agriculture); the Bureau of Land Management (Department of Interior); the Bureau of Reclamation (Interior); National Park Service (Interior); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Interior); and the "systems": the National Wilderness Preservation System; the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System; and the National Trails System.
Once we have that dealt with, we strip the Army Corps of Engineers from the Defense Department, merge their inland and coastal navigation functions with the Coast Guard, and hand their "foolin' with Mother Nature" geo-engineering projects to the affected states.
Then on the second day of the Romney administration....
Feb '12
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Department of Energy can be eliminated. The management of our nuclear materials can be shifted to defense or interior. What is more important is to eliminate the subsidies and ridiculous energy saving programs.
Honestly I think its worth having a conversation about eliminating Labor and Homeland Security. I also think Veteran's Affairs should be folded into Defense or HHS. Important as it is, it doesn't warrant an entire cabinet position.
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers should also be eliminated as a cabinet-level position as well as Administrator of Small Business Administration.
Feb '12
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Also the intelligence community could stand to be consolidated and streamlined. Homeland Security should be broken down and absorbed by other agencies. All intelligence agencies in DOD should be put under one umbrella agency, like the DIA. Each service branch should not have its own intelligence agency.
The Dept. of Energy has an intelligence agency, The Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. It should be eliminated. ODNI should be eliminated as well.
May '10
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Downsizing any department is a temporary solution, leaving open the possibility of re-expansion. Don't downsize. Eliminate.
Look at it this way: How many tax cuts have been made in your lifetime? How many of them endured to today?
The problem isn't how the bureaucrats do their jobs. The problem is that those jobs exist. America prospered just fine without the Department of Education.
[changed "propered" to "prospered" — !]
Edited on April 18, 2012 at 12:01amJan '12
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
I wouldn't consider eliminating Commerce such a wise move, as it's responsible for a large part of the economic record-keeping that isn't done by the Federal Reserve... perhaps roll some of those functions into Labor (as BLS ends up having to cooperate with the Census Bureau on a lot of stuff as it is already), but agencies like the PTO, NIST, ESA, and ITA are all significantly more defensible programs than, say, the entirety of Interior, Education, HHS, HUD, or Energy.
Aug '10
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
How about all of the departments that operate using anything other than police style enforcement powers, other than the Treasury?
Honestly, what powers should the Federal Government have other than to police commerce?
Jul '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
The BATF are domestic terrorists. They need incarceration but I'll settle for removal.
Apr '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Downgrade Veterans Affairs from Cabinet-level department back to separate Administration.
Yes, the existence and activities of the heretofore cited departments are offensive to free citizens, but the real offense against self-government is that their regulatory regimes incorporate legislative, executive, and judicial powers within one entity.
Limit the executive branch regulatory agencies to executing the law. The expansion and interference of government would be obvious if Congress had to vote on definitions of grades of olives and the Federal courts had to be expanded to deal with alleged non-regulation applications of no-moisten adhesives.
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Simple rule: does the department produce or regulate? The Department of Energy, as far as I know, does not produce any actual, you know, energy. The Department of Education is directly responsible for a student body of Zero.
Or, take this approach: any department that was created in a mood of panic - we don't have enough oil! Ivan's kids are getting smarter than ours! - should eliminated.
HUD could be reduced to 100 people directing block grants to localities which might, you suspect, have a better idea about their needs than the satraps half a continent away.
May '10
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Why not start from the other end. If we were going to start a new country, what do we need?
Defense, External Affairs (State), Internal Affairs ( parts of Interior, Commerce, HHS), and Treasury. What else?
Apr '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Jacob Foxx:
Romney still sounds like he really won't go that far. To my mind, there are at least four departments you can outright eliminate, and several other cabinet positions that should be consolidated
If cutting a cabinet department doesn't seem like a big deal, it's worth asking yourself how often it's been done in the past. Reagan suggested he would, but ended up keeping those he had and adding one (Veterans Affairs). For those who followed through, you have Nixon's demotion of the Post Office and Truman's consolidation of the War and Navy departments. That's it, for the whole of American history.
Since the National Security Act was more about increasing Presidential power than about cutting government, and the Postal Reorganization Act likewise did not dramatically cut the government's provision of postal services, a budget cutting and responsibility reducing elimination of a Cabinet department would be unprecedented in American history. A big deal, even if it's not a "straight to paradise" radically utopian reform.
Apr '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
James Lileks:
HUD could be reduced to 100 people directing block grants to localities which might, you suspect, have a better idea about their needs than the satraps half a continent away. · 20 minutes ago
I'm genuinely curious about why you feel that this should be a federal function. I'm not talking Constitution or being angry, but I'd be keen to learn more about this view. A link to a book or post by someone else who has already fleshed it out would be ideal, but even a comment outlining the thought would be interesting.
Jan '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
No one has noted the Departments of Agriculture or Transportation.
Also (at the least) combine OSHA & NIOSH.
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
James of England: I don't think it should be a Federal function at all, but I'm thinking of the political realities - as I seem them, anyway - of eliminating something with a Noble Purpose (housing the unhoused!) and a constituency of local politicians salivating at the thought of more gravy.
I'd rather these things be handled locally, forcing politicians to say "we're going to buy 100 houses, tear them down, and built houses you can't live in, and you're going to pay for it," but I'd rather use that argument for Education first, because it would go a long way towards leeching away support for the education establishment we have today.
Apr '12
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
That's all you need.
Edited on April 18, 2012 at 1:07amApr '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
James Lileks: James of England: I don't think it should be a Federal function at all, but I'm thinking of the political realities - as I seem them, anyway - of eliminating something with a Noble Purpose (housing the unhoused!) and a constituency of local politicians salivating at the thought of more gravy.
I'd rather these things be handled locally, forcing politicians to say "we're going to buy 100 houses, tear them down, and built houses you can't live in, and you're going to pay for it," but I'd rather use that argument for Education first, because it would go a long way towards leeching away support for the education establishment we have today. · 49 minutes ago
Fair enough.
Apr '11
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Liberty Dude
That's all you need. · 20 minutes ago
Edited 19 minutes ago
It is possible that the most efficient organization for fulfilling these tasks is not to have 4 cabinet secretaries.
I'm kind of surprised by the idea of a federal police force being so prominent; America did just fine without for most of her history, and even today we don't need nearly as many feds as we have.
May '10
Re: Romney's Got Some Good Ideas After All
Agreed. Only a politician could think the solution to poor communication between various bureaucracies is to create another bureaucracy.