My good lady made a great suggestion to cure the problems we have with our Federal Government Civil Service. Put appropriate agencies out into different parts of the country, so the our civil “servants” can see what our country is really like. Here are some suggestions:
IRS: Fairbanks, Alaska
Department of Energy: West Virginia, coal mining counties
FBI and Department of Justice: Appalachian counties of Eastern Kentucky
Department of Health and Human Services: ????
Department of Transportation: Connecticut (sp?) (The state highway system is one vast parking lot)
Department of Homeland Security: scattered offices along the Texas/Mexico border.
Department of Education: Offices in the Bronx, NYC, NY
Since Zoom meetings are now commonplace, there is no reason that geography should hinder communication between these good workers.
And what do you suggest, dear reader?
I’ve been urging to spread out the headquarter locations for years— I would, however, suggest they be chosen with an eye more towards being able to do their job in an inexpensive manner.
As you point out, tele-meetings are now common, so ability to cut the overhead in land, wages, and housing allowances would be a much better investment.
The end-goal would be to have DC be nothing but the President, the Supremes, the (telework-enabled) Congress, and a bunch of museums. (and whatever the Library of Congress would be classified as)
Maybe the Pentagon, too, although vastly reduced/telework enabled.
This would also be a good idea from a force-security standpoint, since having all the headquarters in one area is a REALLY BAD IDEA.
That doesn’t work with some things like nuclear power which is across the continent. That said, the US NRC has five regions and associated regional offices in those regions. Go here for the regional offices:
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/locations.html
And each nuclear power plant has two permanent resident inspectors. Go here for a list of plants:
https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/list-power-reactor-units.html
Additionally the US NRC regulates medical and fossil fuel industry use of radioactive sources and radiation-generating equipment.
I don’t know what other regulatory bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, etc. do, but they aren’t localized to one region.
And for those of you who want to get rid of these regulatory bodies, do you really want to fly in a jet aircraft whose digital instrumentation and controls has not been verified and validation according to FAA regulations? Do you want to live near a reactor whose structures and components haven’t been built to US NRC-approved seismic codes and standards?
I work in a very regulated environment, and if it weren’t for the regulatory oversight, the corporate executives would cut whatever corners that they could. I am telling you that from hard experience. The TMI accident and the Davis Besse reactor vessel head degration event happened because people played around and fooled around. So the US NRC racheted up the regulations. It’s our fault in the industry. And racheting the screws is the only thing corporate executives understand.
I don’t care much where they’re located. Government that’s too responsive to the people can be just as dangerous as government that’s not responsive to them. What we need is a smaller federal government in general, with the legislature writing more specific laws and the executive having limited regulatory latitude.
Foxfier: good suggestions; LQC, FBI and DOJ already have branch offices throughout US..I’m suggesting moving headquarters–and I’m not against regulation per se; Pinky: agree with your main thesis, but the idea (humorously intended) is to get headquarters less NY Times and Washington Post, and more Mainville News oriented.
Sure. The maddening thing is, Congressmen regularly go home and see the damage they’re doing, and just don’t connect the dots. There’s a suggestion for you: Congressmen get paid a per diem while they’re in DC but have to live and work in their districts.
Pinky-
E-3 Enlisted barracks for Congress Kritters in DC.
Including medical care!
Disagree. IIRC, about 15% of all federal employees are found in metropolitan Washington. You have to put the seat of government somewhere. There are all kinds of problems with the federal government. Where the HQ is located is not one.
Limited government. Read the Constitution and see that 90+% of what the federal government does is not authorized. If it’s not there the authority/power resides with the states.
Pet peeve. I keep seeing free markets blamed for every economic malady. We have not had a free market anywhere since at least the Great Depression, if not 1913 when they spawned the Fed and the Federal income tax.
E.G., Since late 2008, the Fed has kept ‘market ‘ interest at near-zero, and with massive purchases on UST and MBS not only kept long rate unnaturally low but spawned the record inflation we now enjoy.
And what will ‘they’ do to the Fed? Give it more discretion.
USDA western Iowa
The cure for the swamp is for the politicians involved to realize that they are public servants not the elite masters of the people. “that Government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
anything less is squandering freedom and an insult to real people.
USDA western Iowa
Why? what that does is inhibit communication between elected officials and the Secretary of Agriculture. A different idea:
Scrap the Food and Nutrition Service. That’s accounted for up to 2/3 of the budget in recent years. There might be some subunit thereof that does something sensible, but its primary function is to subsidize grocery expenses, which is wholly unnecessary. Replace those programs with a couple of tax credits and shut the agency down.
The National Institute on Food and Agriculture. This is pork barrel for faculty. Shut it down.
The rural development division: more pork, shut down.
‘Risk Management Agency’. Why is the government providing commercial insurance to farmers?
Agricultural Marketing Service – which supervises the residue of the Depression-era production controls. Replace with some protective tariffs.
Farm Service Agency. This operates the residue of post-war subsidy programs. Replace with protective tariffs.
Discretionary grant programs, NOS. Eliminate them all.
Overseas food aid: transfer to USAID or some other foreign aid agency.
Department of Energy: West Virginia, coal mining counties
Most of the budget is devoted to the National Laboratories, which are scattered all over the country. There are also agencies which collect data on the energy sector, which could be reassigned to the Commerce Department. There’s a regulatory component which could be set up as an independent agency.
Department of Transportation: Connecticut (sp?) (The state highway system is one vast parking lot)
A. Set up toll booths on long-haul Interstate Highways. Distribute the proceeds to dedicated funds in each of the states devoted to long-haul Interstate maintenance. In re U.S. Routes and short-haul Interstates, just define the routes, distribute the signage, and undertake inspections of their condition (as you would long-haul interstates).
B. Maintain the subagency which builds roads on federal property. Give it the additional function of maintaining Interstates and U.S. Routes which have been placed in trusteeship due to state government neglect.
C. Maintain the Air traffic control program.
D. Maintain the various safety inspectorates unless you can transfer them to a newly incorporated department.
E. Maintain the Merchant Marine Academy.
F. Shut the rest of the department down. Over 60% of its budget in recent years has consisted of grants to state and local government. End it.
Odd that this would come about now. It has been a topic of some increased conversation in my circles lately as well.
Devolution of governmental services to the states is completely congruent with both Federalism and Subsidiarity but instead of piecemeal cherry-picking, the whole kit and kaboodle should be targeted for elimination, and THEN, as LQC has aptly pointed out, those functions NOT adaptable to state and/or local control, or those that are Constitutionally enumerated, would be kept under Federal auspice.
Remember, Washington DC to the Democrats is like Wrigley to the Cubs or Lambeau to the Packers. They built it. From Wilson through FDR and LBJ and onward, WDC is home field for the Left. If we are to ever start being the winning team, we have to bring the game to OUR home field, which is The Rest Of The Country. The whole point of consolidation in Washington has been the eventual seizing of power once and for all, as we saw with the (thankfully) premature H.R.1. They over-played their hand, but it was a surprise only to those not already aware of the long game they’re playing. It is why they are in widespread panic right now – they know now, with the exposure of their lies and shenanigans, they’ll lose a generation of “progress” in just a week and change. The ONLY WAY to assure that they don’t come back like the cockroaches they are is to tear down the house they infest. You can’t “turn” Washington and use it for “better reasons.” If you try to do that, you are only a Democrat with a different agenda.
My wish list: Keep only State, Defense and Treasury. Disintegrate Justice and DHS with their pigpen of alphabet agencies, then reconstruct them according to purpose under a new Department of Civil Security (or something similar). Create a mirror to the US Coast Guard with a US Border Guard. The IRS becomes the Bursar of the Treasury and is nothing but an accounting outfit. FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP, ICE . . . all reconstitute under well-defined and exclusive jurisdictions. Sure, this is horribly nutshell but all frameworks start with a foundation.
All other agencies then are devolved outwards, keeping only those functions which cannot be locally managed, with “cannot” being defined as “in no possible way whatsoever.” Those few functions are then consolidated under another new Department like “Domestic Services” or an equally nebulous moniker.
One last selling point – the tax code would have to be overhauled, and in such a way as that most revenues would be kept in-state. Can’t think of too many folks who’d complain about that.
So, I could go on but the point is made. Is it realistic? Probably not, but then again if you’d told me Donald Trump would be the next President right after Mitt Romney’s debacle . . . and like Napoleon’s trees, how long it might take is irrelevant if we don’t start now. Thanks for playing.
They built it. From Wilson through FDR and LBJ and onward, WDC is home field for the Left.
It’s a large city. Densely settled areas of that size taken as a whole are not hospitable areas for Republicans no matter where you are. Greater Dallas and greater Phoenix are the exceptions. Add to that, it has a large black population, which creates another handicap for Republicans. If you take all the jurisdictions in sum, maybe 1/4 of the population in greater Washington favors the Republicans. By “all the jurisdictions”, I mean DC, the counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s in Maryland, the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudon in Virginia, and the stand-alone municipalities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park in Virginia. About 20% of the residents of these places are federal employees (of which a fat chunk are military). “Political Washington” – the elected officials and their staffs, the judges and their staffs, other federal patronage employees, lobbyists, trade association executives, reporters and editors covering federal politics, PR firms, advocacy groups, political party staff, contribution bundlers, foreign government employees, and members of the households thereof – might amount to 2% of the total. They’re ruining the country, but they’re a small sliver of the people on the road as you driving around Washington.
The ONLY WAY to assure that they don’t come back like the cockroaches they are is to tear down the house they infest. You can’t “turn” Washington and use it for “better reasons.” If you try to do that, you are only a Democrat with a different agenda.
There’s a healthy private sector around Washington. The one anomaly (aside from the large pool of federal employees) is that there is little manufacturing.
My wish list: Keep only State, Defense and Treasury. Disintegrate Justice and DHS with their pigpen of alphabet agencies, then reconstruct them according to purpose under a new Department of Civil Security (or something similar). Create a mirror to the US Coast Guard with a US Border Guard. The IRS becomes the Bursar of the Treasury and is nothing but an accounting outfit.
I have no clue how you would intend to operate a government without a set of tax collections bureaux.
Except for the TSA, DHS was an assemblage of already existing agencies with an intelligence clearinghouse attached. Not sure what principle was at work in differentiating the functions of DHS from the JustUs Department, but it looks like constituency bargaining was at work. Michelle Malkin was making the case ca. 2004 that the seminal culture of the TSA was dysfunctional. The founding Secretary of Homeland Security was Tom Ridge, the man who gave you the Kermit Gosnell horror.
IMO, you have about four problems. One is that the federal penal code covers too much ground and has poorly calibrated sentencing rules. Another is that the FBI is too large and important and needs to be broken up. Another is that the FBI and the US Attorney’s offices have a wretched institutional culture. IMO that’s a consequence of their being no penalty for gross misconduct by federal judges, federal prosecutors, or FBI agents.
One last selling point – the tax code would have to be overhauled, and in such a way as that most revenues would be kept in-state. Can’t think of too many folks who’d complain about that.
I would. The state governments have ample capacity to raise revenue. You can have some minor specialized grants (e.g. federal disaster relief), but the general principle should be to avoid distorting the preferences of state and local officials through federal subsidies and compliance costs. That means replacing specialized grants with a general grant to each state and territory, no strings attached. The general grant would be calculated according to formula. Impecunious places like Puerto Rico or Mississippi would receive contextually large grants, affluent places like New Jersey and Connecticut would receive no grant. General grants to county governments and school districts might be handled by state and territorial governments; hose to municipalities by county governments. Formulaic grants which favor impecunious states would remove the justification for federal finance and provision of particular services.
Note, Social Security cannot be devolved and devolving Medicare and Medicaid requires time and attention to detail. These are very large slices of federal expenditure.
It’s a large city.
Everything in that comment is spot on. My brother, who currently lives in Montgomery County MD and is correspondingly blue, lived at 16th & U back when Adams-Morgan was on the edge of urban pioneering. I remember walking back from the first foodie-haven bistros there while hearing gunshots from a couple of blocks away . . . and maybe it all gets turned into a ghost town, but I’m not sold on that. By “Washington” I meant the Federal Government. Regular people find ways of maintaining value and self-interest; considering the armpit 40 miles to the northeast, it could provide some amazing redemption stories. Forgive me if my Horatio Alger is showing . . .
I have no clue how you would intend to operate a government without a set of tax collections bureaux.
It’s a comment on a blog, so some details were of necessity omitted. That said, an arrest warrant for failure to pay taxes could be issued to and executed by law enforcement on any level granted authority to do so. The rules just have to be clear and precise, as you alluded to.
JustUs Department Stealing and keeping.
The state governments have ample capacity to raise revenue.
Precisely. Cut Federal rates drastically and let the states raise as they may. Some, like my native Indiana, would probably come out ahead since we cement-headed Hoosiers tend to do for ourselves anyway. Plus, the blue-staters might then stop whining about “carrying those red-state leeches.” See how well you do on your own, M’Kenzie.
That means replacing specialized grants with a general grant to each state and territory, no strings attached.
A general revenue-sharing system, for the reasons and mechanics you describe, would be most definitely a part of the mix. Too many state pols are where they are now not because they’re good at governing but because they’re good at massaging Uncle Sam’s mushy bits. A formulaic system would eliminate that and bring the focus to administration and policy where it should properly be.
Social Security cannot be devolved and devolving Medicare and Medicaid requires time and attention to detail. These are very large slices of federal expenditure.
I have often thought that Social Security and Medicare could (should) be made optional. If I’d been told at 25 that I could either invest in the government’s system where 7+% of my income, matched by my employers, would render me a 1+% return at retirement OR I could take that same cut and have it conservatively invested – even if my employer’s cut still went to the Fed to avoid discrimination – and I got the returns at 65-67-70-whatever, I’d have bolted in a heartbeat. Expenditure gone.
My parents retired at 50 because Dad’s lifetime of hard work and smart portfolio management allowed them to. They had to go on Medicare at 65 even though they had excellent insurance, and the capacity to pay privately for whatever they needed, because they were not a part of any other “approved” plan. Dad was furious. This should also be optional; expenditure gone.
So there. As with any revolutionary process, a lot gets figured out along the way and entire books have been written on this, so a series of comments on a blog can’t begin to cover it. Nonetheless, “do nothing if you can’t do everything” isn’t a way to go. There are brilliant people who read this blog. It is to hope that our discussion inspires some real action. The status quo is unacceptable.
Foxfier-
Pinky-
E-3 Enlisted barracks for Congress Kritters in DC. Including medical care!
Try this on: I would say Army E-7 @ 8 years for Representatives, locked in at election with no raises regardless of length of term, and Army O-3 @ 8 years for Senators, locked in at election with no raises regardless of length of term.
Thoughts?
“Term limits” organically imposed, as well as decent pay for our soldiers.
I have often thought that Social Security and Medicare could (should) be made optional.
Not possible.