What parts of the government should be bigger?

[jmowreader]

The far right thinks the government doesn't work because it's too big. Obviously in some cases that's true...we have too many Republican Congressmen, for instance.

Today's exercise is to list three parts of government that would be better if they were bigger. I'll start:

Food Safety Inspection Service
Securities and Exchange Commission
Federal Aviation Administration

[conservaphobe]

1. EPA, IRS, and...

A representative of the NLRB on-site at every major company in America.

With regular rotations of staff.

[Scuba]

2. OSHA, Medicare, infrastructure investment, regulatory compliance in general.

[badtoworse]

3. None. A better question is which ones should be smaller

[jmowreader]

18. You mean we have enough food inspectors?

[FSogol]

4. National Park Service, NASA, CDC, Smithsonian

[surrealAmerican]

5. Are we talking about the federal government only?

... or does this question include state and local governments? If the latter, most social services need more staffing in most states.

[jmowreader]

19. If you'd like we can expand this to state and local government

Easy example: My sister runs the Vehicle Licensing office in Post Falls, Idaho. She has six people working for her. There are lines out the door all the time she's open, which is 8am to 5pm - and if you are not INSIDE THE BUILDING at 5, you are turned away. If this was a private sector establishment she'd stay open till 7 and hire four more people...but since it's the government a new law would have to be passed allowing it...and our numb-nuts tea bagging state legislators won't consider it.

[Cleita]

6. The part that actually does the work that benefits all

the people. The rest can be fired IMHO.

[bemildred]

7. Public schools, public health care, public investment in renewables. nt

[WestCoastLib]

8. Probably not the right question, but #1 is public schools

However, the question is loaded and poor. It's not about government being bigger, it needs to be better. We need more teachers and need to pay them better, but that can certainly come at the expense of less military toys, for example.

Unfortunately this is one of those areas where the left has let the right define the issue, to the point that you even have this question.

We don't need "bigger government", but the democratic party isn't making the government any bigger than the republican party does. They just allocate funds to different areas.

[jmowreader]

20. No, I asked which PARTS of the government needed to be bigger

There are obviously parts that need to be smaller - do we REALLY need the Marine Corps? The Council of Economic Advisors? The Commerce Department seems a bit redundant; most of what it does should be done by the private sector, and the few things they do that are rightly the job of the government could just as easily be done by State.

OTOH, most of the regulatory agencies need to be a lot bigger, and some of them should be divided - there have been proposals to split the FDA into two agencies, one that does drugs and cosmetics, the other that does food. This is important because the current FDA is very heavily tilted toward regulating drugs for two reasons: drugs are historically more likely than food to kill large numbers of people, and they've got a staffing limit so they understandably packed the place with drug regulators. If you had one agency that only did food, our food would be safer. I'd also like the Patent Office to create a Reserve Corps of patent examiners - working scientists and engineers who could be called in to look at the very technical patent applications being submitted now.

[hifiguy]

9. The Antitrust Division of the DoJ

The EPA
The FDA and its food inspection programs.

I can go on a lot longer if you'd like.

[clarice]

10. NONE !!!!!!!! nt

[LanternWaste]

22. Your naivety and innocence of the human condition is adorably outdated.

Bless your little heart. Your naivety and innocence of the human condition is adorably outdated.

[clarice]

29. Your point? nt

[ileus]

11. Government should run utilities.

Water
Electricity
Gas ect...

#2 More funds and oversight of Colleges and Tuition

#3 Better oversight of the Banking industry

[lpbk2713]

12. Child Protection Agencies need more help desperately.

Although most staffing is usually on the State and Local levels they could
use a lot more resources than they presently have to contend with.

Children are at risk simply because employees don't have the time to
deal with each child assigned to them as they really should and as the
case worker would want to due to their unmanageable heavy case load.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

13. IHS and VA.

Both have too much work for too few staff and facilities.

[pscot]

14. none

Take the money out of admin and move out to where shit actually happens.

[jmowreader]

21. Okay...where do you want to move it to?

I think you agree that parts of the government should be bigger - if the parts where "shit actually happens" were enlarged, more shit could actually happen. So...assuming that this could be done without increasing headcount, where would you like the changes made?

[deafskeptic]

24. Oh, here's a perfect example of where "shit happens" - just look at congress

I'm thinking stuff like a near government shutdowns and actual shutdowns and it caused our country to have a lower credit rating, opposing everything that Obama does. Do I need to say more?

[pscot]

27. As an example, more park rangers and fewer

USDA execs. We have way too many generals and admirals. Homeland Security could simply be eliminated. We need another serious round of military base closures. NSA, CIA and all the rest of those spy agencies could be consolidated down to where they'd fit in a small, 3 story office building next to their server farm in Utah. And since most of the servers are now gonna be surplus we can lease the unneeded space to Goodwill Industries as sorting and distribution center. I have lots of ideas, and if you elect me President in 2016 I guarantee to put the brakes on wastefraudandabuse, unless I'm assassinated first.

[frazzled]

15. Let me add one more

(agreeing with posts above that include infrastructure, regulatory agencies, etc. as priorities).

My addition is Arts funding. Jeezus, folks. Our National Endowment for the Arts has a (static) annual budget of about $158 million per year to fund visual arts, music, dance, etc. in this country. That less than three-tenths of one percent of the non-military budget of the US. Compare that to Germany's $1.63 billion and France's $7.4 billion euros of cultural spending per year. Our national cultural imprint used to be a big part of our international presence.

[LiberalEsto]

16. EPA, OSHA, and whatever branch of the IRS is supposed to prosecute wealthy tax cheats

Meanwhile, I'd love to see the Department of Homeland Security shrunk enough that it could be drowned in a bathtub.

[One_Life_To_Give]

17. SEC, SEC and SEC

Oh and maybe a major expansion of Club Fed.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

23. Who controls the departments is just as important than their size.

If you have former Monsanto or Phizer execs in the FDA or former oil execs in the EPA or bank execs in the SEC, we won't see the progress we need. Those programs could do a lot of good with the right funding and leaders. There is a lot of fat to trim in the defense budget. They certainly don't need to be bigger.

[Avalux]

25. Anything related to SAFETY and WELFARE of Americans.

That includes food and drug safety (FDA), environment (EPA), health care (Health and Human Services).

EVERYONE needs medical care and housing regardless of employment....we really need to restructure our government and ensure these basic needs are met for our citizens. Yes, I know it's socialism.

[FLyellowdog]

26. The female part. nt

[Brother Buzz]

28. I would make "The Bureau to Restore Passenger Train Service to Everyone and Everywhere" HUGE

There is such a bureau, no?