Thread: Executive Branch Budget

Which departments of the federal government should be merged with other departments, absorbed into other departments or be cut completely? Also, are there any new departments that should be created? Please explain your policy changes.

Current Departments are...

State
Treasury
Justice
Defense
Commerce
Labor
Interior
Transportation
Agriculture
Energy
Health & Human Services
Housing & Urban Development
Education
Veterans' Affairs
Homeland Security

Departments & agencies can easily be renamed & added to the bureaucracy...... eliminated??

Originally Posted by Devil505

Departments & agencies can easily be renamed & added to the bureaucracy...... eliminated??

Well, if you believed it were possible.

I would eliminate Homeland Security as well as Housing & Urban Development. I would have Veterans' Affairs absorbed into Health & Human Services. I would have Agriculture, Transportation, and Energy absorbed into Interior. I would have Commerce and Labor merged into Trade. My final list would consist of...

State
Justice
Treasury
Defense
Trade
Interior
Health & Human Services

Originally Posted by Morgan

Well, if you believed it were possible.

I would eliminate Homeland Security as well as Housing & Urban Development. I would have Veterans' Affairs absorbed into Health & Human Services. I would have Agriculture, Transportation, and Energy absorbed into Interior. I would have Commerce and Labor merged into Trade. My final list would consist of...

State
Justice
Treasury
Defense
Trade
Interior
Health & Human Services

I think political reality would make quick work of your ideas...which may well have merit but would never get passed in Congress.

Example: "I would have Veterans' Affairs absorbed into Health & Human Services. "
Can't you just hear the RWingers screaming......." These damned liberals want to take away veterans benefits from our gallant fighting men & women!!!...Now these liberal Commie Pinkos want to even remove "Veterans' Affairs" as a department!?!?!@ (that speech would be given by a GOP'er wearing TWO American Flag lapel pins as he breaks down in tears on the floor of the House)

Originally Posted by GrumpyOM

Pretty close to what I would have suggested as well. You're probably a little more extensive than I would have been but I can't argue with any of it.

We've managed to convolute the budget pretty well. So many outdated programs that are going nowhere, and too many inefficiencies. I believe those that would be absorbed could operate much cheaper if they were organized under larger umbrella departments like the Interior. Many things within those other three departments can be done away with. Energy mostly just manages our nuclear arsenal. If you reorganize and put that under the Defense budget, then Energy would be needed for little more than an energy regulatory committee which would not need it's own department. I forgot Education, but that could be absorbed in HHS as well. The largest budgets would remain Defense and Health & Human Services, but all departments could operate with less money if they were organized more efficiently.

I do not really subscribe to the big vs. small government argument. I don't think our problems can be solved by having large overreaching government or by having too small, and unresponsive of a government. I believe state governments should be pivotal in providing the bulk of welfare policies. When policies are created by governments closer to the people they affect, then they are usually much more responsive and worthwhile. I believe in efficient government where it is needed most. I would continue to keep things like the EPA, but it would be put under the jurisdiction of the Interior. Eliminating as many outdated or unneeded independent bureaucracies as possible would also help.

On a side note. I have considered adding a Department of Science to my list, which could house all of the current organizations that operate as scientific bureaucracies. These include but are not limited to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and National Science Foundation (NSF).