Just take one bureaucracy and see if it is needed. The Department of Labor was founded by FDR, and occupies a magnificent building at 14th and Constitution Ave. N.W. in Washington D.C. It is part of what is known as the “Federal Triangle.” FDR’s new bureaucracies comprise a sort of triangular section of D.C. bordered by Pennsylvania And and Constitution Aves, Pennsylvania Ave. running at an angle to Constitution, and they join at about 7th St. N.W. It is, like most of the Federal Triangle buildings, of excellent architecture.
The Department of Labor has a budget of $13.98 billion, and has close to 18,000 employees. If it were abolished, its building could be sold to a private corporation as a headquarters for many millions, and then placed on the tax roles. The 18,000 employees could look for work in the private sector, and almost $14,000,000,000 of tax payer money would be saved.
The Department of Labor has all sorts of divisions, such as “Temporary employment training,” “Community service for older Americans,” “Federal employment benefits,” “State paid leave fund,” “Program Administration,” “Advances to the unemployment fund,” “Wage and hour division,” “Office of labor management standards,” “Mine safety,” “Bureau of labor statistics,” and the list is long.
Is there any possible thing regarding labor, which an individual state could not perform if it desired? I say “desired,” because if I ran a state, I’d leave employment and safety to those hiring employees, and not get in the way with infinite regulations. If a coal mine is dangerous, can a state mine inspector decide it? State electrical inspectors inspect wiring, and so far anyway, there are no federal electrical inspectors which dog contractors as they build, remodel, and do profit making tasks.
That’s only one of dozens of bureaucracies which cost a trillion dollars a year, and 95% of them are totally unnecessary, since if their jobs are needed, a state could do it much cheaper and more efficiently. Think of how much the states would love to get rid of some bureaucracies, such as the Department of Education, which costs $75 billion a year and has 5,000 employees in a huge, ugly building in D.C. That was formed under Jimmy Carter, and Ronnie Reagan tried to get rid of it, but a Democrat Congress wouldn’t allow it, and no one has tried it since, although conservative candidates have promised to try.
A trillion bucks a year for all the bureaucracies? Yes, counting all they give away, and they don’t ’give’ anything, until they collect more than twice that much in taxes. Just imagine a teensy federal government that frees up a trillion dollars a year. The 35% corporate tax just keeps jobs overseas, and what do the feds do with the 35% corporate tax? Who knows?
It isn’t just a matter of ’reducing spending,’ but getting totally rid of a trillion bucks worth of bureaucracy. The gigantic federal government has been around so long, (since FDR) and grown ever since, that most Americans think it is necessary! No one can imagine being freed of something that is absurd, costly, and unnecessary. One gets used to things, no matter how bad or objectionable they are, when they persist on and on, decade after decade. One just gets used to a pain in a joint if one has had it for 25 years or 50 years, or as long as one can remember. Some people have chronic headaches, or back pain, and they can’t remember being without them, they have had them for so long.
Just imagine no more income taxes, federal bureaucrats, gasoline taxes, and federal taxes on everything. Literally EVERYTHING. Imagine factories re-opening, or new ones being built. Imagine America once again being the wonder of the world, with Washington D.C. empty and all those huge, government buildings for rent or sale. Would corporations buy them and hire people and make a profit, rather than siphoning everyone’s money down an endless drain of government waste, regulations, and huge cost? Imagine a balanced budget and the debt being paid off gradually.
Let the airlines check for terrorists, and run their airports. I’m sick of TSA outrages and grouping of children and grandmas. Railroads have run their lines for 150 years, did their own safety systems, and even paid property taxes on every building and foot of track. Without foreign wars, there would be no terrorism threats. They don’t hate us because of our ’freedom,’ (sic), but because we invade their lands! The idea of freedom from 95% of federal government and all the repression, regulation, taxation, and nuisance it costs and creates, almost boggles the mind. The nagging, expensive, bother, has been here for so long, that we can’t imagine being without the pain of it. Let your minds realize just how hamstrung we have become with the D.C. Gang and all their little bureaucrats invading every nook and cranny of our lives, and us paying for it with huge taxes and reduced value dollars.
Foreign wars have cost us over a trillion dollars so far, and the Veteran’s Administration budget is $140 billion a year. This will go on for 75 years, rightly taking care of the disabled vets, who were shuffled off to silly wars, and were told they were ’fighting for their country.’ Bless their brave hearts, but they and we are being duped with than absurd phrase ’fighting for their country,’ when it is nothing of the kind. It is useless, wasteful, foreign wars which make those nations in which we fight, hate us, and we would hate too if we were invaded.
From the May 26, 1900 Gladstone Kibosh: “A lot of lumber has been ordered and bids will be let next week for an addition to the Kibosh office. The contract will call for a room 4 1/2’ X 6’, sheet iron roof and sides, and bullet proof. H. Cleft started to lay the foundation last Monday, and had he not made so many trips to the Angel of Mercy Saloon, in company with our temperance editor, the work would have been completed the same evening.”