Posted on 06/06/2002 5:17:43 PM PDT by UnBlinkingEye
I am watching President Bush giving a speech on CNN telling us he is expanding federal government more than any Democrat since Truman.
Libertarian.
LOL! Sorry to be such a downer;)
Right.
What we really want is law enforcement with no intelligence at all.
It could be dangerous for them to actually know who to go after.
You all are lauding and applauding this new Cabinet post and all that goes along with it, comments posted read as though this is a temporary fix, needed because of this emergency situation, gee, when it's all over and we've won, it won't exist any more.
Nothing lives longer than a government program, this position is PERMANENT. Any government program receives more and more tax dollars every budget cycle. There is no way in he** this cannot be called an expansion of government ... it simply needs the preposition "now" added to the phrase.
And you can bet your life that the next Dem who becomes president and appoints one of his buddies to the post is going to make his *turf* as big as he possibly can. That's my point.
--Agriculture Department: Secretary Ann Veneman's agency will lose the Plant Health Inspection Service and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
--Commerce Department: Secretary Donald Evans' agency will lose the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office.
Of course this stuff is typical of the government. Why did the Secret Service wind up under Treasury? Oh I'm sure somebody had a compelling arguement at the time (probably the guy in charge of the department) but it doesn't take long for these things to stop making sense.
I think people are actually mad because this is going to totally screw up their trivial pursuit game. What department is this agency in is a fun game to play with our government. Now there's going to be a bunch that actually make sense. And people are miffed.
Would defeating him be a reduction?
I'm not clear on the responsiblities now, but in the past the CIA was only to investigate outside the U.S. and the FBI was used for domestic intelligence.
DOD runs the military who's job is to invade other countries and defend our from invasion. Terrorists don't do that invasion stuff, it's not their style.
The ultimate responsibility of the DOD and federal government is to protect the citizens and prevent and defeat foreign attack.
Bush didn't pick this fight, but it is his job, as specifically outlined in the constitution, to win it. If you've got better ideas pony up. But all I see is whining.
I suggest we abandon our role as globocop, mind our own borders and keep our nose out of other nations business.
So your premise is that we would have less spending proposed by a tax and spend liberal without this department ? Your still kidding aren't you ?
As a matter of fact, I read the list right here at FR, a Bush supporter who wanted everyone to know just what had been going on, what Clinton had added, and what Bush was going to fix, FWIW. Wish I'd had the foresight to save the thread ... but I didn't think y'all would turn into a bunch of Carville-sound-alikes.
Creating new agency--stripping away good personnel, authority, and funding from large ineffective bureaucracies (for example--taking cargo inspection dollars and responsibility away from the Dept. of Transportation and moving it over to Homeland Security)--equals good business sense.
GW is doing a classic deal--a merger of sorts--reallocating personnel and assets so that they can be used more effectively--structuring a new chain of command to facillitate decision making (Tom Ridge said it took 4 months to get some troops on our Canadian border because so may steps/ agencies were involved.)--bringing together all the relevant threads necessary to develop an efficient reactive capability--it is a brilliant business proposal presented at exactly the right time--the Democrats can hardly refuse to relinquish some of their power over agency departments after squealing so long and hard about the need for GW to create a cabinet position...he is the fox...Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, and even Tom Ridge have earned my admiration tonight.
I see. By taking irrelevant departments and their existing budgets and giving them a new mission, Bush has co-opted their budgets and related pork to use to further the security of our country. Now I get it.
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