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What Departments Would You Dissolve?
What three federal government departments would you immediately dissolve, if you could? Feel free to offer an explanation of why or just list them.
The three that I’d eliminate:
- Department of Education
- Housing and Urban Development
- Homeland Security
DOE, self explanatory. Get the federal government out of college financing. End the the “free money” manipulation game for High Schools, Colleges, and College students. Colleges would need to model themselves after Hillsdale or shutter their doors.
HUD, Fannie and Freddie…
Homeland Security, created in 2002 and already the third largest department. Just leads to further bloating of our anti-terror programs.
So, Ricochetti what are the first three departments that you would dissolve?
Published in General
F the TSA.
I hear there are a lot of them. It could keep you busy for a very long time.
Made me snort coffee thru my nose.
Such small ball.
Start with the Dept. of Justice. Fire everybody including at the FBI and have in the legislation that working for the DoJ in the past is a disqualifier for future employment anywhere in government.
I’d devolve to the Articles of Confederation. The states, once again acting as sovereigns, could determine among themselves how to sustain the remnants of the federal government they wished to keep operating. Some could be homesteaded, some governed by compact, others privatized.
And Virginia could reabsorb D.C, if it wished.
Another area that would be of great help would be if we went to a biannual budget. Have Congress be in session for 6 months at the beginning of the term, so January 3 – June 3. They only work on the budget and when done the session ends and they return home to work as regular citizens. Make them become true citizen legislators. And they don’t return until January 3 two years from then, when the new term would begin. They could be called back to Washington in cases of emergency, but for the most part they stay out of DC.
You’ll need to have public support to eliminate these departments.
To that end, congress should require a publicly posted audit of each department, including their accomplishments and screwups, how the funds have been spent, and so forth, for each year.
If the net is negative for more than a year or two, it should be easy.
My favorite discussion of this is Peter Robinson questioning Milton Friedman . There are so many agencies to get rid of….
Score! (Hope it wasn’t too hot.)
I think the better question is what would be the easiest three department to get rid of from a political stand point. Education would be in the top three.
You also have to remember just because you get ride of a department does not mean all programs and sub-organization that are associated with that names subjected matter go. RAND did a study a while back it is crazy the number of programs and departments in the various cabinets due basically the same thing. Often the program has nothing to due with what the cabinets name is. So getting rid of the department of education would still leave a lot of educational programs in place in other departments.
Like many others I’d rather make it much more than three. However if limited to three, I can’t argue with the post author, three excellent choices for the ash-heap of history.
It’s not the burn so much as it is the hassle of wiping the coffee & snot off the laptop…
FDA, EPA, and DoC
This is not a smart idea. The Constitution was put in place for a reason, and the worthlessness of the Articles was the reason. The Dormant Commerce Clause actually serves a useful purpose.
If you want this kind of “confederation”, you might as well just forget about a “United States” and reconfigure NAFTA to be between Mexico, Canada, and whatever individual states choose to join, because there will be no country, other than a form of “EC-Lite”.