December 5, 2010

Reduce the Size and Power of the Federal Government

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2010 United States Federal Budget

Source: Wikipedia

Estimated Receipts

Estimated receipts for fiscal year 2010 are $2.381 trillion, an estimated decrease of 11% from 2009. Total Spending

The President's budget for 2010 totals $3.55 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2009. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures: Deficit

The total deficit for fiscal year 2009 was $1.42 trillion, a $960 billion increase from the 2008 deficit.

The 2009 deficit includes the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program ($154 billion in 2009), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ($202 billion in 2009, $353 billion in 2010, and $232 billion in 2011 forward), and the 2009 Omnibus spending bill ($410 billion)—and changes due to President Obama's policy proposals.

The 2009 budget deficit would represent 12.3% of gross domestic product, the largest share since World War II.

Let Every Federal Department Justify Its Existence - Constitutionally

The 2011 federal budget for the following departments totals $1.5 trillion. Before cutting Social Security and Medicare, which are funded through dedicated payroll taxes (FICA) [not by the federal income tax], the U.S. government needs to trim the fat in each department and eliminate those functions that need only be performed at the state level (or not performed at all by the government).

July 20, 2010

Doug Patton - The executive departments of our federal government read like an alphabet soup of bureaucracies entwining and entangling themselves into every area of our lives. The litany of "on-the-books" divisions and subdivisions does not even count the unaccountable czars, advisors and otherwise nebulous bureaucrats whose only business it is to annoy the American people and to demand of us affiliation and information to which they have no constitutional authority.

Imagine if each cabinet secretary had to come before Congress and justify, on constitutional grounds, the existence of his or her department...
  1. USDA -- Department of Agriculture (2011 Budget $25.7 Billion).

    Created under President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 to help farmers who needed good seeds and information to grow their crops. Farmers couldn't find this information any other way? And today's USDA is the only entity that can monitor the quality of our food?

  2. DOC -- Department of Commerce (2011 Budget $9.1 Billion).

    Founded in 1903 as the Department of Commerce and Labor, which later became its own department in 1913. As with so much that sounded good at the time but is later found to be a public policy mutation in need of a justification, this department most likely would not have passed muster with the Founders.

  3. DOD -- Department of Defense (2011 Budget $708.3 Billion).

    One of the few mandated and approved by the Founders. Originally created as the War Department, the name was changed after WWII. Today, we find ourselves with fewer troops under arms than many of our most dangerous enemies, including the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is one of the few departments we should not only continue funding but which should be beefed up.

  4. ED -- Department of Education (2011 Budget $68.6 Billion).

    Originally created as part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the Eisenhower fifties, Jimmy Carter carved out the federal Department of Education to make it a separate cabinet post in the late 1970s as a pay off to the teacher's unions for helping him win his one pathetic term.

    There is no constitutional justification for it, and it should be abolished.

  5. DOE -- Department of Energy (2011 Budget $28.4 Billion).

    Another Carter boondoggle, this agency was created with one ostensible goal in mind: reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

    Enough said?

  6. HHS -- Department of Health and Human Services (2011 Budget $81.3 Billion).

    Again, this massive entitlement bureaucracy grew out of Ike's HEW and was given its own agency by Carter.

    The largest federal agency, it is now so huge that it would probably require a team of constitutional experts to determine whether any part of it can be justified.

  7. DHS -- Department of Homeland Security (2011 Budget $43.6 Billion).

    Although the Constitution gives Congress the authority to create new agencies, it also puts limits on what government can do.

    Created during the George W. Bush administration after 9/11, the jury is still out on whether this agency is constitutional.

  8. HUD -- Department of Housing and Urban Development (2011 Budget $43.5 Billion).

    Have you seen any of our inner cities lately?

    This department was created in 1965 and should be abolished yesterday.

  9. DOJ -- Department of Justice (2011 Budget $29.2 Billion).

    Although the post of attorney general dates back to George Washington's first cabinet, Congress did not create the Department of Justice until 1970. Since a main responsibility of the executive branch is to enforce the laws, DOJ can stay.

  10. DOL -- Department of Labor (2011 Budget $117.2 Billion).

    An excuse to promote labor unions, especially during Democrat administrations.

    Dismantle it.

  11. DOS -- Department of State (2011 Budget $52 Billion).

    Foreign policy being the constitutional province of the executive branch, the Founders saw DOS as an important part of the Republic. Of course, it would be nice if more of the bureaucratic lifers who work there were patriotic Americans.

  12. DOI -- Department of the Interior (2011 Budget $18 Billion).

    Created in 1849, I'm sure there was justification for it at the time.

    However, over the last century, it has overreached in the area of taking private property.

  13. DOT -- Department of Transportation (2011 Budget $79 Billion).

    Established in 1966 during Lyndon Johnson's Great Society years.

    It would have been hard for the Founders to imagine jet air travel in the 21st Century; still, it is difficult to make the case that federal involvement with America's transportation issues has been a plus. [TSA anyone?]

  14. VA -- Department of Veterans' Affairs (2011 Budget $125 Billion).

    One of the newer agencies, VA was created in 1989.

    If protecting the nation is job one for the federal government, then taking care of the veterans who sacrificed to preserve our freedoms should be a legitimate federal issue.
Finally, there is the Treasury Department (2010 Budget $13.4 Billion). Washington's first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, would frown on eliminating his job. Of course, he never knew Timothy Geithner.

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Obama Appointed Deeply-entrenched Political Elites to His Cabinet and to Head the Departments of the U.S. Government

This list was compiled by Patrick Wood, The August Review, March 9, 2009.

For details on their affiliations with the American Security Project, Aspen Institute/Aspen Study Group, Atlantic Council of the United States, Bilderberg Group, Bretton Woods Committee, Brookings Institute, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Trilateral Commission, etc., click here.

- Vice President: Joe Biden
- Department of State: Hilary R. Clinton
- Deputy Secretary of State: James Steinberg
- Assistant Secretary of State, Asia and Pacific: Kurt M. Campbell
- State Department, Special Envoy: Richard Haass
- State Department, Special Envoy: Dennis Ross
- State Department, Special Envoy: Richard Holbrooke
- State Department, Special Envoy: George J. Mitchell
- Department of the Treasury: Timothy F. Geithner
- Department of Defense: Robert M. Gates
- Department of Energy: Steven Chu
- Department of the Interior: Ken Salazar
- Department of Education: Arne Duncan
- Department of Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle (see the note for this listing)
- Department of Agriculture: Tom Vilsack
- Department of Transportation: Ray LaHood
- Department of Labor: Hilda Solis
- Department of Housing and Urban Development: Shaun Donovan
- Department of Veterans Affairs: Eric K. Shinseki
- Department of Commerce: Judd Gregg
- Department of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano
- Attorney General: Eric Holder
- National Security Advisory: General James L. Jones
- Deputy National Security Advisor: Tom Donilon
- Director of National Intelligence: Dennis Blair
- Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: Leon Panetta
- White House Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel
- White House Military Office: Louis Caldera
- Ambassador to the Untied Nations: Susan Rice
- Domestic Policy Council: Melody Barnes
- US Trade Representative: Ron Kirk
- National Economic Council: Lawrence Summers
- Council of Economic Advisors: Christina Romer
- Economic Recovery Committee: Paul Volker
- Office of Management and Budget: Peter Orszag
- Securities and Exchange Commission: Mary Schapiro
- Council on Environmental Quality: Nancy Sutley
- Environmental Protection Agency: Lisa P. Jackson
- Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change: Carol Browner
- Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnership: Joshua DuBois

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