BUSH PROPOSES LARGEST EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT SINCE TRUMAN

CNN ^ | 6/6/2002 | President

[UnBlinkingEye]

I am watching President Bush giving a speech on CNN telling us he is expanding federal government more than any Democrat since Truman.

[sinkspur]

I thought you had died. I wasted a good drunk on a false hope?

Damn!

[VRWC_minion]

I think freedom is the most important goal in life

Goals are chains.

[JMJ333]

How long are you going to continue in star wars dialect? Hopefully not much longer...

[VRWC_minion]

You think Ridge is gonna be the only guy to hold the job and then it's kaput?

Why is that relevant. I miss your point.

[MinorityRepublican]

Many of them are liberals that think they are using conservative rhetoric to prove a point. All they do is demonstrate they have no real idea what they are talking about.

I fail to remember the last time that they had such a coherent argument. They do not realize our far the conservative movement made in the past ten years.

The biggest reason I'm a conservative?

Slick Willy!

So I am thankful for x-42, believe it or not. He certainly shaped my ideology and had and still have a significant impact on my life for the better.

[UnBlinkingEye]

Do you own a gun to feel safe, or because you have the freedom to do so?

Mainly for hunting, target shooting, etc. Of course if the moment came guns can enhance defense.

[Recovering_Democrat]

'ping for Bush! :)

[sinkspur]

can do without your facile rationalizations and sandbox syllogisms.

What about your anal alliterations?

[JohnGalt]

Since the creation of the Department of Education in 1978, test scores have been in decline. By what rational should we conclude there will be a better result this time around? As the boss of nation's defense, he has to power to fire the very people he himself said failed in their national security responsibilities-- and yet there has been not one single high level resignation-- how should we square this contradiction in words and policy?

[MozarkDawg]

There's not one drop of expansion.

Um ... he's proposing a new Cabinet POSITION. According to an earlier post, Andy Card said the MONEY HAD ALREADY BEEN AUTHORIZED. Just because the expansion happened before tonight's speech, it can hardly be considered "not one drop."

[Lower55]

Was that an answer to my question?

[UnBlinkingEye]

What is the mission of the Department of Defense?

[VRWC_minion]

If the Bush administration gets its way (a good bet given the unremitting cowardice of congress), we soon will live under a constitutional dictatorship,

At least then he can do all the things his chief critics here want him to do.

[lawdog]

But won't the good Republicans be "in power ", forever ? I am shocked-shocked I tell you!

[Lower55]

Because no 'one' person dropped the ball. It was because they were playing on different courts. He's trying to get the players to play under the same rules, with the same umpires.

Kinda like Wimbledon....

[Jorge]

So blind faith in the government is akin in going to a doctor ? I think not.

Is going to the Doctor to get antibiotics when you have an infection "blind faith" in Doctors?

I was addressing the flakey holy roller notion that we are not to trust the Department of Defense to actually defend us when enemies attack us.

[UnBlinkingEye]

On the rare occasion where a policeman has knocked on our door, or asked me on the street whether I had seen something, I never considered it an intrusion. I considered it an opportunity to help the officer achieve goals I share with him. I can't quite sympathize with the concern here.

Have you ever had the IRS, EPA, etc. knock on your door?

[VRWC_minion]

Since the creation of the Department of Education in 1978, test scores have been in decline. By what rational should we conclude there will be a better result this time around?

Proving education isn't a valid federal charge but defense has proven itself to be a valid national charge time and again.

[sinkspur]

I've seen a list, someone else here may have it or a link handy, but apparently, the Federal Gubmint is right now existing under several different *emergencies* that never got rescinded, recalled, ended, whathaveyou.

Try the website for the John Birch Society, or, better yet, Alex Jones.

He's probably got 'em all memorized or can get 'em from some guy sittin' in his underwear on the short wave.

[discostu]

Just so we're on the same page I stole this from this thread. If this list of currently existing agencies isn't an example of government gone wrong I don't know what is. Can somebody explain why in the world the commerce and agriculture departments have any agency that has any impact on national security. And one of you decriers need to explain how sensible consolidation without a budget increase is an expansion.

--Justice Department: Attorney General John Ashcroft's agency would lose the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Office of Domestic Preparedness and the Domestic Emergency Support Team, as well as the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. The plans were discussed among only the most senior officials, including Ashcroft, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and Ashcroft's chief of staff, David Ayres.

--Treasury Department: Secretary Paul O'Neill's agency would lose the Customs Service and the Secret Service. Officials said O'Neill was briefed on Bush's plan Wednesday and was supportive. The officials did not yet know how many workers would be affected.

--Transportation Department: Secretary Norman Mineta's agency would lose the Coast Guard and the fledgling Transportation Security Administration. The TSA is aiming to hire 67,000 workers, including more than 30,000 people to staff airport checkpoints plus air marshals, law enforcement officers, and workers to screen checked baggage for explosives.

--Health and Human Services Department: Secretary Tommy Thompson's agency will lose all workers doing bioterrorism research, preparation and response. That includes the Office of Public Health Preparedness, which Thompson created last year to consolidate bioterrorism work. It will also affect National Institutes of Health researchers working on vaccines for various deadly agents and epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who respond to public health emergencies such at last fall's anthrax attack. Thompson was told of the president's plans Wednesday, an HHS official said. The plan was to affect about 300 agency workers and $4 billion per year.

--Agriculture Department: Secretary Ann Veneman's agency will lose the Plant Health Inspection Service and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

--Energy Department: Secretary Spence Abraham's agency will lose the nuclear incident response team and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., which researches detection devices and defenses against chemical, biological and radiological attacks.

--Commerce Department: Secretary Donald Evans' agency will lose the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office.

--Defense Department: Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's department will lose the National Communications Systems division.

--The General Services Administration: The GSA will lose the Federal Computer Incident Response Center and the Federal Protective Service.

--Interior Department: Secretary Gale Norton's agency, which protects parks, national landmarks and dozens of Western dams, does not yet know whether it will lose functions, a spokesman said. Norton has been involved in planning the new department.

--The Federal Emergency Management Agency, now an independent agency, would be folded into the new department's emergency response and preparedness division.

All these groups do have an impact on national security for various reasons. There is no good reason for them to not be under the same roof. Maybe these groups will actually start talking to each other and get something done once in a while.