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Politics Will Republicans eliminate any federal agencies? Doubtful

SorryWill Republicans eliminate any federal agencies? Doubtful to say, the biggest joke this week wasn’t Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry’s debating skills –- though they are indeed something to behold — but rather the running canard that any candidate, save perhaps libertarian Ron Paul, would actually attempt to shut down a federal agency, much less mention the idea after they were elected.

By now most everyone has seen Perry’s performance in the CNBC presidential debate wherein the governor of Texas claimed that he would scale back three federal departments to cut government spending and influence. He rattled off two — Education and Commerce – before subjecting millions of perfectly innocent viewers to a looooong and  uncomfortable silence in which he failed to produce a third.

(Energy, man. The Department of Energy! You’re from Texas.)

Surely any small-government conservative can rattle off an array of needless bureaucratic departments and agencies they’d like to trash – from the Transportation Security Administration to the National Endowment for the Arts. But Perry is human and even the slickest of humans occasionally struggles with recall or grapples with the perfect word or pertinent fact. Then again, perhaps Perry’s answer wasn’t easily accessible because the entire premise is a sham and he knows it. No one is shutting down any federal agency. The only time Washington scales back the number of federal agencies is when they start combining them and making them stronger and more intrusive. See: The Department of Homeland Security.

Conservatives have heard this promise forever: Ronald Reagan pledged to submit a budget that would “dismantle” the Department of Education. In the 90s, the Republican Party platform featured a promise to shut down the DOE. Yet by the early 2000s, George Bush had expanded the scope and power of the DOE through No Child Left Behind in ways that now allows the Obama Administration to strengthen unions rather than offer the parental choice that the previous administration had promised.

That’s not to say it’s a crazy idea, of course, despite the establishment’s aversion to it. MSNBC’s Jonathan Alter summed up the media’s conventional view when he tweeted: “The real Perry gaffe wasn’t brain freeze but idiotic idea of killing three federal agencies in the first place.”

Idiotic, right? Tenth Amendment of the Constitution has some nonsense about “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” But that’s so jejune, right? So outdated.

Remember that it is within these agencies that regulatory regimes blossom and economic growth is inhibited, where winners and loser are picked, where subsidies are handed out, where bad policy is implemented, and where nannies concoct their plans. This bureaucratic outbreak hit the nation under FDR and has yet to be put down.

So there is a legitimate argument for reducing the power of these agencies but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. To begin with no president is going to have the power to come in and shut them down – not today. Moreover, none of these Republicans candidates – including Perry – have the skills, the support and the political backbone to do the job. And I don’t believe any of them would even try.

Fortunately, or tragically, there are plenty of pressing and real problems they can tackle. Give us a real plan for reforming entitlements, for cutting spending and for creating a more prosperous atmosphere for the economy. Talk of shutting down departments is a convenient position but it’s also a platitudinous one that makes a candidate look unserious.

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Follow @davidharsanyi.

Comments (8)

  • bruce_baker
    Posted on November 14, 2011 at 1:43pm

    If we DON’T get rid of the Dept. of Education and stop the Marxist indoctrination of our children, we’ll lose what liberty we have left inside of 10 years. You can’t beat a birth rate, and they’ve been cranking out good little Marxists like sausages for years. Thank the National Education Association for that.

    “Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other” – Ronald Reagan

    “The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.” – Ronald Reagan

    What they teach in American schools today: Global Warming is gospel, the Gospel is a myth, and Big Government would be God’s gift to humanity if God existed.

    Report Post » bruce_baker  
  • pcisbs
    Posted on November 11, 2011 at 2:25am

    Including Reagan in his rant was ridiculous given that Democrat controlled both houses 7 out of his 8 years in office and the congress for all 8 years he was office. Regardless of Reagan’s desires, elimination of entire departments was never in the cards.

    Report Post »  
  • Alismum
    Posted on November 10, 2011 at 7:45pm

    I am sorry that the writer is so cynical. I believe that if Ronald Reagan had a majority in Congress he would have dismantled many departments. You are right about Bush and Romney is the same kind of politician. I do believe that Perry, Cain, Bachman and Gringrich are all conservative politicians who would love to cut the federal government to the bone. If we can support the most conservative candidate and work to elect more conservatives to the House and Senate we could turn this country around. Don’t give up. Get to work. We owe it to our ancestors and our grandchildren.

    Report Post »  
  • sweetconcern
    Posted on November 10, 2011 at 7:11pm

    Amen to that speakincode: Dr. Paul is the only hope for these United States. He would with the help of the REAL people who love the USA close all the non constitutional positions and agencies and repeal all the UNconstitutional regulations etc. and return soverinty to the Individual States. Sanity, Peace thru strength, Life, Liberty, Property, and sound Money backed by gold. Paul 2012

    Report Post »  
  • SpeakInCode
    Posted on November 10, 2011 at 5:46pm

    That, or just elect Ron Paul…who is the only candidate up there who is serious and isn’t blowing smoke.

    Report Post »  
    • southernORcobra
      Posted on November 10, 2011 at 7:03pm

      blah blah blah blah

      Report Post »  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on November 11, 2011 at 7:50am

      Can a Paulite name some official Paul beliefs with which they agree besides “end the Fed?

      He’s no friend to Israel – anti-Semites flock to the man.

      He has no problem with Iranian nukes, which seems suicidal to me.

      He wants zero US involvement unless we’re directly attacked. Thank God France didn’t feel that way during our revolution.

      Why won’t Paul supporters… I mean DOCTOR Paul supporters ever discuss these facts?

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • A Doctors Labor Is Not My Right
      Posted on November 11, 2011 at 1:50pm

      @Jaycen,

      “Can a Paulite name some official Paul beliefs with which they agree besides “end the Fed?
      “He’s no friend to Israel – anti-Semites flock to the man.
      “He has no problem with Iranian nukes, which seems suicidal to me.
      “He wants zero US involvement unless we’re directly attacked. Thank God France didn’t feel that way during our revolution.”

      Most of these issues were addressed recently in an interview with Tom Woods.

      See here.

      Woods on Iowa Radio: The Christian Case for Ron Paul
      http ://www.tomwoods.com/blog/woods-to-iowa-radio-host-the-christian-case-for-ron-paul/

      As for France helping us in our revolution, the very need for a revolution would not have existed had England not been able to fund its lust for power with fiat money (which is a hidden tax).

      See here.

      Bank of England > History
      http ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England#History

      Ending the fiat money system (in our case, the Fed) is the only way to rein in the growth of government and to ensure economic mobility for all citizens.

      Ending the Fed solves the problem of government subsidies to such programs as Planned Parenthood, ACORN, NPR, and of course crony Capitalism.

      Ending the Fed needs to be the PRIMARY focus of Americans, because all matters of individual liberty depend on our view of fiat money.

      Report Post »  

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