[mnehring]

I am still waiting for a Paul supporter to answer what Constitutional authority President Paul would have to eliminate the CIA, DEA, NSA, FBI, NEA, FDA, FTC, IRS, and all the other things he says he will eliminate.

Wouldn’t that have to originate in congress? If he leaves congress, who is left to sponsor a bill to do these things?

[SJackson]

Pondering a Paul Presidency is an exercise in absurdity, but you're correct that he has no power to eliminate departments. Congress would fund them, he'd veto, they'd override, Paul would be obligated to fund the various departments though I suppose he could order employees not to work or stay home, we'd revisit the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 but he'd be impeached and removed from office long before the court case was resolved.

The alternative, to persuade voters. Which he's doing, dismally.

[mnehring]

To the Paulite lurker who just emailed me a response to this question with a two word answer (that started with F and ended with You)..

BTW, that email box is a group box for an eLearning community with about 100 members, so you have no represented Paul to all 100 members with your two word response... lol..

[billbears]

I am still waiting for a Paul supporter to answer what Constitutional authority President Paul would have to eliminate the CIA, DEA, NSA, FBI, NEA, FDA, FTC, IRS, and all the other things he says he will eliminate.

I'll answer your question. Example, the CIA was established under the National Security Act of 1947. However the Central Intelligence Group was a prior entity established by Truman (by EO in 1946). The National Security Act of 1947 was just the next step. Wouldn't the President have the capability to sign an Executive Order demoting certain departments? Or are you of the understanding the only use for Executive Orders is only more centralization of power?

My personal view of the easiest way to eliminate departments is to

A) not nominate Cabinet positions for those departments
B) veto budgets that have funding for those departments

I'm not sure the Constitution would require President Paul (nice ring to it don't you think ;)) to put Secretaries in all the positions but Congress would probably claim otherwise. So put Secretaries in those positions that would work to put themselves out of work, laying out plans over a 5-10 year period to wind those departments down.

Hopefully in the meantime, Paul's liberty message would catch on at the Congressional level, spawning more than a few challengers to Congressional seats and putting more people that believe in liberty and freedom in Congress than we currently have.

[billbears]

Note, there’s more to it than that but I don’t feel like typing it all out, LOL. General gist of the matter but I think it’s not only plausible but possible. Even Reagan called for elimination of the Department of Education