Which department do you believe we could get rid of?

[nextJin]

Assuming we had to get rid of at least 1, which would you do away with and why? There is a 10 poll limit so some are not listed:

Not listed:

Department of State
Department of Defense
Department of Justice
Department of the Treasury
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Health and Human Services

**There are 10 options in the poll, the last option reflects a choice of the above options in the not listed category**

If you believe it is essential we have all of these departments and refuse to play along just chose not listed and state we need them all

I can't get around this limit in poll options :/

 

[nextJin]

I went with the Department of Education.

Since it's inception, our world rankings have drastically went down. Children in SoCAL are not the same as kids in Alaska or Maine. More money has not increased our world rankings and No Child Left Behind was a complete across the board failure.

Education should fall back to the states imo.

 

[Greenman]

Need an all option.

 

[EagleKeeper]

On mobile, so poll not visible.

However, Commerce, Education and Homeland Security would be three off hand that cause more grief now than needed. IMO

 

[davmat787]

I went with the Department of Education.

Since it's inception, our world rankings have drastically went down. Children in SoCAL are not the same as kids in Alaska or Maine. More money has not increased our world rankings and No Child Left Behind was a complete across the board failure.

Education should fall back to the states imo.

I was going to vote for the Dept. of Education as well, until I came across the Dept. of Homeland Security, whose budget blows away most other well established departments by far.

I fear in 10-20 years the DoHS will simply be a domestic spying agency and little else.

 

[gevorg]

to put things into perspective...

 

[Agent11]

Homeland security, what we needed was simple inter agency communication. What we got was a bloated atrocity of a bureaucracy and domestic spying program.

 

[PottedMeat]

i came in here expecting Homeland Security to blow out everyone else and was not disappointed.

Homeland security, what we needed was simple inter agency communication. What we got was a bloated atrocity of a bureaucracy and domestic spying program.

this

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I'm not familiar with the interior and housing and development. I did homeland security because of the ones I knew that's the most worthless.

 

[CPA]

to put things into perspective...

wow, that is an awesome chart. +1 likes for you.

 

[nehalem256]

Judging by the big chart I would have no problem eliminating the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

$40 billion saved.

 

[HeXen]

Rid em all and start all over. Their all corroded imo.

 

[Incorruptible]

Get rid of all of them and many of the useless moron bureaucrats but DHS would be the first to go and then education.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

First the DoD, then the Department of Homeland Security.

 

[Acanthus]

Homeland security can be given up entirely.

Department of defense obviously can't be eliminated, but it should be cut in at least half.

Most of our budget problems can be solved with those two changes alone.

Education, Commerce, and Interior are critical but all 3 need serious reform.

 

[herm0016]

education. just split the 70B between the states to increase teacher salaries. I think the money we spend on idiots in offices would be much better spend on teachers.

 

[monovillage]

My choice not listed.

 

[Juror No. 8]

Getting rid on one department won't fix a thing. The entire government needs to go, as it's just one big criminal empire. If you cut off one tentacle, another will grow in its place.

The only solution is to chop the head off.

 

[PrinceofWands]

I don't so much care about the departments, we just need intelligent spending by the departments. Drop 90% of foreign aid, cut military by 75%, cut 90% of corporate subsidy, then put us back on a proper progressive tax system topping around 50-75% (making sure to execute ANYONE trying to get out of paying) and quit taking loans until all outstanding debts paid. Problem solved.

 

[Wreckem]

What do people mean when saying get rid of DHS? Breaking it back up into the smaller parts or getting rid of it all?

I mean alot bitch about immigration. We'd drastically need to increase DHS's budget to combat illegal immigration, but yet people want to get rid of DHS. Right now almost half of DHS' budget goes towards ICE, CBP, and USCIS(the 3 agencies that handle immigration). Add in Coast Guard and that is almost 3/4's of DHS's budget.

I am pretty sure people aren't saying they want to do away with ICE, CBP, USCIS or the Coast Guard. So what do you want to get rid of? FEMA? Secret Service? Or just the TSA and the National Protection and Programme Directorate?

And people keep spouting domestic spying and DHS. But ummm the DoJ and DoD are far more responsible for "domestic spying."

 

[nextJin]

What do people mean when saying get rid of DHS? Breaking it back up into the smaller parts or getting rid of it all?

I mean alot bitch about immigration. We'd drastically need to increase DHS's budget to combat illegal immigration, but yet people want to get rid of DHS. Right now half of DHS' budget goes towards ICE, CBP, and USCIS. Add in Coast Guard and thats 3/4's of DHS's budget.

And people keep spouting domestic spying and DHS. But ummm the DoJ and DoD are far more responsible for "domestic spying."

They mean that all it did was add a layer of bloat over things that already provided services. The DHS basically equates to using free conference calls over Skype for a few billion a year.

 

[Wreckem]

They mean that all it did was add a layer of bloat over things that already provided services. The DHS basically equates to using free conference calls over Skype for a few billion a year.

You do realize, that it really didnt created any more bloat, it just shifted it around right?

All the agencies(except FEMA) that make up the DHS were agencies under other cabinet level agencies. It just shifted shit around.

The old system wasn't any more efficient in terms of bloat and didn't spend any less.

 

[Wreckem]

...

 

[nextJin]

You do realize, that it really didnt created any more bloat, it just shifted it around right?

All the agencies(except FEMA) that make up the DHS were agencies under other cabinet level agencies. It just shifted shit around.

The old system wasn't any more efficient in terms of bloat and didn't spend any less.

Do you have verified sources with the price spent before and after adjusted for inflation?

 

[Wreckem]

Do you have verified sources with the price spent before and after adjusted for inflation?

I meant for administrative overhead(ie: bloat).

Every single agency spends more money than before Sept 11. Every agency has more employees than they did in 2001. That exception to that is USCIS, because they are more or less solely funded by user fees.

Since 2001 we have more than doubled the amount of CBP officers and roughly tripled the amount of ICE Agents. If you argue those are bad things well, then you must be pro open borders.

As much as people bitch about our "unsecure" borders. Our borders are more secure today than at any other time in US history. Which honestly doesn't say much. To fully secure our borders would require far more money than any political figure is willing to spend. We can secure our border and prevent illegal immigration but doing so would come at a very steep price.

Lets get real here. The DOD and VA, which should be lumped together(long term DOD healthcare costs are shifted to the VA) came close to hitting a $1trillion/year during the late 2000s. DHS spends 5% of that. I mean there are single programs within the DoD that are more expensive than DHS. But DHS is a problem. The reality is DHS is severely underfunded for its mission and scope. But its underfunded because the US doesn't actually care about border security or immigration.