Surgeon General is sure a cooler title than HHS Secretary. Those kinds of titles are also fun for weeding out the stupid people who think such office holders should be addressed as “General” (as the Bobby character in that Kennedy miniseries insisted though I think he was just being a jerkass) which is even more amusing cause the Surgeon General holds the rank of Vice Admiral. Being unaware of what exactly the hell that position did I once looked it up and learned there are 2 non-military uniformed services, the Public Health Corps and he other one is the “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps”. Sounds like a very necessary service.
I’ve been waiting for a opportunity to talk about how I’d change the cabinet. First off, get some Advil in there. And after 8 of Obama, some hemorrhoid cream too. ;p
Veterans Affairs being a cabinet-level position is just absurd, you may as well put the Postmaster General back in and the maid who does the President’s laundry. It should be under DOD, which I would rename the Department of WAR, to send a message.
Axing HUD is a no brainer.
It would be politically impossible to get rid of college grants but you don’t need an entire department of education to handle that.
I’d put Energy and the EPA (which I believe is an independent agency, the EPA would also be refocused on real enviromental issues) under Interior. I’d also transfer the forest service there from Agriculture where it has no place being. Then I’d ax the farm pork and abolish the DOA altogether.
Commerce and Labor don’t need to be separate.
Homeland Security, if it’s necessary, should be renamed. What the hell were they thinking? The equivalent UK department is called the Home Office but when you add “land” it sounds Nazi-esque. Department of Domestic Security sounds much better.
Commerce & Labor were briefly a single Cabinet department from 1903-1913 before being split in two (it didn’t exist prior to 1903). But since these are really under the same general aegis, I would fold Labor back into Commerce.
As for Homeland Security, what is it but DEFENSE of our country ? Hence why it is absurd to be separate and apart from Defense. Seems like an excuse to have duplication of that bureaucracy. The leftist moonbats would freak if we returned to the pre-1947 Department of War (then again, so would the Paulbots).
“War” is somewhat of a misleading title, anyhow. When it was created under Pres. Washington, it was really just a Department of the Army (although it exists now as a subcabinet position under Defense, Navy used to have a full-fledged Cabinet position). “Department of the Military” would be a more appropriate title, and that person serving as a Cabinet head should be a bonafide military official (as in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs). Although, of course, one can also understand keeping that with a civilian at the helm (since that post with a General in charge could serve as a perch to launch a coup d’etat, although unlikely with a President making said appointment).
Oh, well, though if I were serving in Congress, I’d want to launch a review commission of all governmental departments to recommend streamlining/merging, et al. Get the ball rolling on rollbacks that will have to be made.