List of proposed changes

nj.com ^ | 6/6/02

[Arleigh]

Haven't you noticed his 'style' yet. It brings to mind the Texas two step.

Actually, Jorge's "style" brings to mind another Texan -- LBJ.

[Amerigomag]

Agriculture Department will lose the Plum Island Animal Disease Center

Did anyone say "bioweapons test center"?

[bluefish]

Please see my #38 for my initial thoughts. I remain suspicious, but cannot immediately discount the plan without actually seeing it. What I do know is that what is being meddled with is a complex mess, and far from anything close to a cohesive team to begin with, so the quote you bumped seems rather unrealistic and unfair as a response when you think about, don't you think?

[kristinn]

Lost a zero, in there. Make that 170,000 employees.

[Arleigh]

You may understand that there are benefits to be had, but the average American drone doesn't and would be instantly manipulated by the Dems in the same way that the Dems cynically scare old people with threats to their social security.

TRANSLATION: It's just too hard to stick to one's convictions. Easier to go with the flow. We're only in it for the power and the money that comes with running the country, after all.

[Unknown Freeper]

I thought this was going to be a list of changes JohnRob is making.

[garyb]

Damn this is scarier than the structure of the KGB and the NKVD

THANK you. The amount of power that is concentrated in one department is positively frightening. If some one thinks this is good now, wait until the next Clinton comes into the White House.

[america-rules]

"This would have shown that he is running the country like a business. NO merger in business has ever gone over without an announcement in workforce reduction and an immediate positive tick on the stock market. "

This usually happens a few months after not at the time of the announced merger unless they are two exact companies. If they announce it's because they want to calm the stock holders.

They usually cull the workforce to get rid of dead wood after the merger!

[Moonman62]

I have some reservations, but my support is with President Bush. After all, America is at war and if we want to win, all American's have to support the Commander In Chief.

My concerns are about what happens when a tyrant like Mrs. Clinton gains control of such an agency.

[bluefish]

Your point is well taken, but consider in large Federal bureacracies, our freedoms are actually lost to the bureaucrats, not the President or Congress necessarily. Wouldn't consolidation of the bureacratic mess make it easier for Congressional and Judicial oversight? Wishful thinking perhaps, but I am hoping to see a possibility that the giant bureacracies, their inefficiencies, ineffectiveness, corruption and oppressive powers, just MAY actually be a little more tightly controlled this way. I have no idea, but I AM trying to find some good here to offset the natural fears and suspicions that arise for me.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Ah yes, here comes Eeyores of the Broken Record Conservatives, nothing is ever good, the sky is always falling, everyone else has blown it. Utopia in one fell swoop, or its all a waste, eh?

Actually this looks pretty impressive. Could be in effect an end around many of the holdovers, maybe even a form of busting the civil service union. Depends on how the transfer takes place. Notice how for almost all the changes only a few at the top were consulted, headed off not only leaks but any attempts by Dems to undermine with false contentious issues(in an attempt to protect turf). He's not duplicating, but rearranging and moving. Notice that much of the budget comes out of the budget for other departments. And with any move there is usually an inventory taken, simplification, and a clearing out of excess.

Now there is almost no way Congress can substantially change this, the public is going to support it bigtime as a common sense reform. So Bush has strong public backing and gets to tear into some of the entrenched beauracracy and shape a new, leaner agency. Yet if he had proposed directly earlier this year that he was going to cut the fat in many departments, he might have faced enough opposition to have never been able to get them implemented. Brilliant, and it crept up quietly. So if Bush can stealthily pull off some trimming of the fat, what other conservative moves is he plotting to pull off that we haven't been tipped off to?

[Arleigh]

Damn this is scarier than the structure of the KGB and the NKVD.
Good. I think that's the point.

So, you think living in a police state is a GOOD thing?

[Dale 1]

Correction: 170,000 employees. Did you notice the comment that the airport security requirement is needing to grow to 80 thousand. I can’t imagine that almost half of this new organization is going to be dedicated to checking luggage.

I also think that the 37B is a startup cost. Once agencies and specific activities are tagged to move to the new organization, their personnel and dollars will transition with them. It’s an easy task to figure out what the INS was to be funded next year and simply redirect the dollars and personnel authorizations to Homeland Defense. The ultimate operating budget for Homeland Defense will look very much like what DoD is currently getting. Just my opinion.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Petronius, 210 B.C.

Don't know if your quote is correct, but your date is wrong. Petronius, known more fully as Petronius Arbiter, was a contemporary of the Roman Emperor Nero, who reigned in the middle of the first century AD.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Exactly.

[bluefish]

Is it a police state, or the dismantling of multiple bureacracies? Many huge nations were brought to their knees by the bureaucrats moreso than an overzealous power at the top.

[brewcrew]

Actually, I thought this was the more germane portion of the quote:

a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress...

[Rowdee]

Your 'slated to have 17,000 employees' is off substantially.....the figure is 170,000. I believe I just read up above the Coast Guard has 36,000 people itself.

[Arleigh]

So if Bush can stealthily pull off some trimming of the fat, what other conservative moves is he plotting to pull off that we haven't been tipped off to?

You are DELUDED! Jorge has been adding fat to the federal government faster than Hillary's been adding it to her thunderous thighs. What could POSSIBLY make you think this move has ANYTHING to do with cutting the size of the Federal Government? Besides, of course, your blind and delusional belief that Jorge Bush is anything even approximating a conservative.