“Defund the FBI”: but how?
I’ve seen many many articles and comments saying that the only solution to the rampant partisan corruption of the FBI is to defund it. Here’s an example of one such article. It’s by Roger Kimball, and the following excerpt is couched in the form of advice to Donald Trump if he manages to get elected in 2024:
Disband the FBI. We should never have allowed a national police force to come into being.
Move the bits of the government you can’t actually destroy to other parts of the country.
Do these things instantly—the day you take office. The deep state will howl. The bureaucrats will oppose you. The lawyers will sue you. Do it anyway. Act first, deal with the consequences later.
Conduct metaphorical dawn-raids on their people and institutions just as they weaponized the Justice Department against you and your supporters. That would not only be the retribution you seek, it would also be reciprocity. Speed and thoroughness will be of the essence. If you hesitate, if you are half-hearted, you will be lost…
The focus should be on eclipsing Washington, D.C. as the seat of government. It has long been obvious to candid observers that there is something deeply dysfunctional about that overwhelmingly Democratic, welfare-addicted city.
First of all, for Trump to even attempt to do any of that it would be necessary for him to get elected, which I don’t think will happen. But just for the sake of argument, let’s say he does. And let’s say he attempts this in some top-down action – because for it to be done with the agreement of Congress, both houses would have to be in firm Republican control and not just Republican control but control by the most radical elements of the right. So that’s another reason it’s not going to happen.
But again, what if Trump or some Trump-like figure tries to do it by diktat? That would lend credence to the long-claimed idea of the left that Trump has always wanted to be a dictator. And who would be enforcing his directive? The current FBI or DOJ, the Washington DC police force, the Capitol Police? Who would close the FBI offices and/or fire everyone? Wouldn’t Trump himself (or the Trump-like figure) be more likely to be arrested in a coup? And wouldn’t most Americans agree that he should be arrested? Half of America (or even more) may distrust the FBI, but that doesn’t mean they’d be in favor of it’s dissolution in that manner.
And even if most people did approve, the Deep State would not. And they are no longer afraid of the will of the people. Among other things, they believe that they control the outcome of elections – whether through “rigging” achieved by court cases approved by leftist judges, the cooperation of an almost wholly-leftist media, or outright fraud in situations where it can be accomplished, or some combination of all of these things.
To take a different but related topic, what of the criticism of the Durham Report not going so far as to recommend prosecution of anyone involved? There’s this [emphasis mine]:
The fact that Durham failed [to convict any of the Rusiagate perps so far] tells us a lot about the priorities of the Justice Department and partisan elements of the judiciary but little about the truth. Mueller was able to strong-arm guilty pleas from campaign flunkies such as Papadopoulos for not speaking carefully enough, but last year, Durham was unable to secure a conviction against Danchenko for blatantly lying to the FBI. To give you an idea of what Durham was up against, the judge threw out one of the key charges against Danchenko because when he told the FBI that he had not talked to Dolan, the evidence presented contradicting this was in the form of written emails, which did not meet the literal definition of physically talking to someone.
Ultimately, the most damning thing about the Durham report is that it makes no specific recommendations to stop something such as the Trump-Russia abomination from happening again. This may seem like a strange place to arrive at, given the voluminous corruption he documented. However, Durham’s report repeatedly noted how the FBI showed extreme caution investigating anything related to Hillary Clinton’s prodigious corruption and gave her campaign “defensive briefings” when it believed a foreign entity might be attempting to influence her campaign — a marked difference between the aggressive and clandestine efforts to target the Trump campaign.
If federal law enforcement and bureaucrats are going to choose willfully to employ gross partisan double standards and ignore the existing policies and are generally incapable of restrained and prudent judgment, Durham sees no point in putting new guardrails in place.
“The promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training sessions would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise if the FBI’s guiding principles of ‘Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity’ are not engrained in the hearts and minds of those sworn to meet the FBI’s mission of ‘Protect[ing] the American People and Uphold[ing] the Constitution of the United States,’” Durham concluded.
And believing that Durham’s failure to successfully prosecute is mostly a matter of failure of will and/or active collusion with the perps, and that if only he had had the will to do the right thing he could have been successful, is in my opinion futile magical thinking. That doesn’t mean I believe that Durham left no stone unturned; for example, I find this the best indication that there was something amiss with the investigation:
The ringleaders of this crime against the American people, including Comey, McCabe, rabid Trump-hater Peter Strzok, then deputy assistant director of counterintelligence, declined to be interviewed by Durham, and he inexplicably declined to use his power to compel their testimony.
But did he have the power to compel their testimony? So far I haven’t been able to ascertain whether he did. Here’s an interesting article that mentions they refused the interviews but doesn’t deal with the question of whether he had authority to make them talk to him.
Unfortunately, the situation looks bleak at this point. I hate to be such a downer, but that is what I see.
Wray about to be clutched by King Kong.
Garland headed over the rainbow.
I realize it’d lead to all sorts of hysteria, but why can’t the House, all by itself, just pass an appropriation in the next budget giving the FBI, say, 1/4 of its current amount? If they were to hold their ground, what can the rest do?
But how?
Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Vivek wants to abolish the FBI. While he hasn’t fully described the plan, I think the US Marshalls play a big role.
Vivek is a smart guy. He ran a biotech company. He’s dealt with hedge funds and the Street. He can hire other smart people. He won’t hire the likes of Rudy G.
Vivek can get it done. I have high confidence in Vivek. I don’t in Trump.
He could not compel these miscreants to talk. If under subpoena, they would have appeared with lawyers and either pleaded the Fifth or claim they could not recall anything in answer to questions.
}}} Who would close the FBI offices and/or fire everyone?
Um… the military, of course. That’s kind of the way they dealt with Wallace when he refused to follow orders from the federal government. They are under his direct command, and he’s not dealing with anyone he does not have official control over anyway, when it comes to the FBI. They are technically executive branch.
Disarm them, take away their badges and authority, confiscate all records to be used in any lawsuits (with copies for their legit legal needs), then deal with the inevitable lawsuits and policy challenges after the fact.
If Trump were elected he may not be able to defund it, but he can depopulate it. Have his FBI head simply fire people right and left, all of headquarters and all of the lower echelons who won’t cooperate in “hanging” the bad guys so that they can be tired for their criminal behavior. There’d be a lot of screaming by the Dems, but so what, they’re going to do that no matter what.
}}} Vivek can get it done. I have high confidence in Vivek. I don’t in Trump.
Well, from experience, it’s WAAAAAY too early to be making any prognostications, but I don’t think Vivek has enough support to get the nom at all. But more than likely he could be a great Veep candidate, and a major ally in implementing those things if they won. DeSantis-Ramaswamy? I could easily vote for that, on first blush, anyway.
Yes, the situation is bleak indeed. The American Republic is being strangled to death. What to expect when one side follows the rule of law, and the other side fragrantly ignores it with impunity? Duh!
We are well on our way to a socialist police state. I am not sorry I’m old, so I will not have to live under it for long, but I hate the future of my kids and grandkids.
It is what America seems to want. It accepted the demonization of Trump, one of our most accomplished presidents ever (think Abraham Accords, not tweets!), jailed his supporters in solitary for “misdemeanors”, executed one citizen in the Capitol, and elected a demented chronically corrupt old man to the presidency.
Magical thinking seems to be endemic on the right. The assumption seems to be that a huge majority of the country agrees with the populist right (a complete fantasy), and all that is lacking are politicians with the courage to carry out “the will of the people.”
The saddest manifestation of the magical thinking is that the one politician in the nation who is making real headway against the Left in his state (DeSantis) is derided in favor of Trump, who, when in office, allowed the GOP establishment to run his administration for him, “fought” the Left by tweeting fifth grade insults, effected no changes that were not easily reversible after the next election, allowed Fauci to direct federal policy during COVID, is now calling for a unilateral surrender on cultural issues, and even now is mostly interested in rebuking affronts to his own infallibility rather than talking about how the Democrats are destroying everything good about this country for ordinary people.
Purveyors of the magical thinking like Hanson and Kimball are providing a feel-good drug to frustrated MAGA types. Its a living, I guess.
By the way, for those who think Trump or his appointee can just “fire” FBI agents — those FBI agents have statutory civil service protection. As far as Trump’s competence in hiring and firing goes, remember that he appointed Christopher Wray and could not even keep DNC agents like Col. Vindman out of the White House (where he does have control over who is assigned there).
I tend to agree that it would be nigh impossible for any hypothetical future Republican President to completely clear out the FBI and DOJ in any kind of quick, shock and awe fashion as Kimball envisioned here.
The best we could hope for is a more gradual clearing out, starting with leadership and other key figures. And even then it would of course be doggedly resisted at every step of the way from both within and without the Deep State apparatus. Predictably the MSM would label such actions as reckless and dangerous to national security. And we all know that there would also be endless attempts to undermine the efforts with fictious leaks to the liberal media. And as you say, without control of both houses there would doubtless be attempts to impeach such a Chief Executive no matter how whispy the premise of such an impeachment would be.
All this doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be done anyway though. A thorough house cleaning absolutely needs to be done. The Deeps State holds the citizenry in contempt. They hate and fear many American voters and think of the rest as fools. They are absolutely incompatable with anything that isn’t a nasty authoritarian political oligarchy.
But these are all speculations and wishes that still seem unlikely to happen since they depend on winning the white house which still seems a bit of a long shot to me personally. It’s interesting to think about I guess though.
OBloody:
I do not believe the military would obey that order.
What could be done by a Republican president is the cleaning out of political-level appointees at all agencies, with perhaps half of them replaced by more sensible people (half, because a reduction in total numbers would probably be a good thing). DeSantis, for example, would be far more likely than Trump to have large numbers of capable people willing to work for him and with him.
Neo: you are correct. The current crop of General Officers/Flag Officers owe their allegiance to the Democrats, the majority having been put in place by Democrats.
Durham would have had subpoena power.
Order creating his position: https://www.justice.gov/sco-durham
Which recites that his authority included: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.6
Presumably that includes subpoena power. But as another commenter has noted, they would have taken the 5th. BUT, why didn’t Durham subpoena them and then report that they had taken the 5th? So, we’re kind of back to Neo’s question…
I reluctantly agree with Cicero’s (2:52 pm) extreme pessimism. But I just cannot resist remarking on his/her opening,
“Yes, the situation is bleak indeed. The American Republic is being strangled to death. What to expect when one side follows the rule of law, and the other side fragrantly ignores it with impunity? Duh!”
Yes, I do suppose the other side refuses to wake up and smell the (*fragrant*) coffee. [Insert a *flagrant* but gentle elbow-poke in Cicero’s ribs here.]
Seriously, it’s a succinct summation of where it looks like we find ourselves. Nothing to add but gory details, and I scarcely have the stomach for that at this late point.
Here is a radical proposal which is likely ‘magical thinking’ per djf, but a wonderful hope. It would address the entire administrative state, not just the FBI and would not involve defunding or abolishing any agency:
New Federal law stating the following:
All federal civil service positions at GS-9 or higher are limited to 10 consecutive years of service. An individual who leaves federal service may not re-enter federal service until two years after his separation. No individual may stay in federal service at GS-9 or higher for more than 15 years total.
Exceptions to the above rule shall be granted by an independent review board. This board shall be appointed by the President, with 2/3ds consent of the House and Senate for fixed, staggered six year terms, with a one term limit.
The independent review board shall consist of twelve members, with four appointed every two years. No member of the review board may have held a civil service position within the United States government for 10 years prior to his appointment. No member of the review board may have held an elected or appointed position within the United States government for 5 years prior to his appointment.
A federal employee may appeal to the review board for an exception to the above duration restrictions. But the burden of production is on the employee by clear and convincing evidence. The employee may retain counsel, but at his own expense.
Exceptions will last no more than two years, at which point the employee must request another exception.
Lastly, current federal employees at GS-9 or above are NOT grandfathered in. There will be a six month grace period from the day this law takes effect and the review board is established, during which time, affected employees may submit their requests for exceptions.
Such a law would be fought tooth and nail in the courts, the media and everywhere else. But it would a bold strike against the deep state
Any who might fight this Eff Bee Eye battle such as Congressman, Judges or Senatorscare going together the Deep State hammer on their heads. It’s all been calm so far but Marxists will play for keeps
Ackler: Who’s going to pass your proposed law? A filibuster-proof Republican majority in the Senate plus a GOP House wouldn’t begin to be enough. And we’re not getting a filibuster proof Republican majority in the Senate.
Instead of daydreaming about things out of reach, it might be good idea to focus on trying to elect to office effective and articulate candidates — i.e., candidates who can persuade voters who aren’t already true believers and have a game plan for fighting the Left with the tools that are actually available — instead of performance artists who have no game plan for realizing their pie in the sky fantasies once in office and usually can’t get elected in the first place because they speak in code that is meaningful only to the minority who are already true believers. The latter are worse grifters than the GOP establishment types.
And having a high IQ and offering theoretically good ideas does not necessarily mean that one has any political smarts to accomplish anything, much less get elected (see e.g. Vivek, who is running to sell books, IMHO).
Most FBI employees do not have the civil service protection of 5 U.S.C. chapter 75 and 5 C.F.R. Part 752. And their protection against retaliation for whistleblowing is less than for most federal employees.
Back several years ago a story that was in the news was about how the various Executive Agencies–agencies one would think had no need for such large numbers of guns and ammunition–such as, for instance, the Social Security Administration, the SBA, VA, HHS, and many others–were ordering large numbers of pistols, long guns, body armor, sometimes even armored vehicles, and especially ammunition.*
Perhaps those leftists in power were thinking way ahead, and wanted to make sure that–if push came to shove–they would have all the coercive power they would need.
See, for instance, this report from back in 2017 at https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2017/10/20/why-are-federal-bureaucrats-buying-guns-and-ammo-158-million-spent-by-non-military-agencies/?sh=a40db7864a16
Acker – That’s a good idea in theory, but beyond difficulties in passing it, I’m not sure it would work. Progressive “charities” would find 2-year make-work jobs for bureaucrats while they were out of government, and the end result would be a government of bureaucrats who were even more loyal leftists than what we have now.
I think Kate and those with similar ideas are right. The best was can reasonable hope for is to work from within the agencies. Upon a Republican victory, every political appointee needs to be immediately fired. No Sally Yates or James Comey this time. Then find high-quality political appointees who have experience in the relevant agencies who can clean house to the extent permitted by law and and hire people who are Democratic party lackeys.
Of course this is impossible without Republican control of the Senate, preferably with a few votes to spare.
in the 70s, the left worked with the pike and church committees to handicap the efforts against leftist radicals, mark raskin (father of crazy jamie) ips that was literally a soviet front organization pushed against any measure, (were there some excesses in that pursuit probably) in the 80s the Reagan administration acted against groups like cispes, which were the political arm of the salvadoran guerillas (who took power in the 00s)
in the 90s, the Clintons with the efforts of Mort Halperin who was part of that crew, tried to follow up this effort, they decided to go after the low hanging fruit which were the militias, all the while Al Queda was on the march, the Patriot Act was the answer to the wrong question,
Hire people who are NOT Democratic party lackeys . . . typo.
the same wurlitzer from the 70s, was recycled in the 00s. of course we couldn’t profile or pattern any religiously motivated militant group, now adays well prolifers and veterans are fair game, because reasons, but actual terrorists like antifa and
black liberation army (the wellspring of blm) are just peaceful protesters
“Presumably that includes subpoena power. But as another commenter has noted, they would have taken the 5th. BUT, why didn’t Durham subpoena them and then report that they had taken the 5th? So, we’re kind of back to Neo’s question…”
The former employees most in need of being interviewed under oath (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, etc) were the ones most vulnerable to prosecution. So, invoking the 5th would have been perfectly justifiable. They had all (except for Page) been fired for cause, so couldn’t be compelled to testify as a condition of future employment.
My solution would be to start by revoking the security clearance for anyone involved in any of this malfeasance and misfeasance. I would include the MAL raid and prosecution of the J6 protesters. Grounds would be dishonesty and violation of people’s Constitutional Rights. The DOJ prosecutors could just be transferred across the country. Gut the DOJ’s National Security Division and the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. Transfer them all to the Madison office.
Interestingly, we are being given a blueprint on what to do, by what the FBI and IRS are doing to whistle blowers scheduled to testify before Congress. That’s where the idea of stripping the FBI agents of their security clearances, then transferring them, came from.
I thought the idea was to abolish it. “Defunding” serves the Democrat narrative that claims that it’s the Republicans who want to defund the police.
I don’t think the agency will be abolished, but it certainly could use a good cleaning out. Fire everybody at the top. Bring in reformers. Clean up the FISA court system. We could also separate interstate crime investigation from domestic counter-intelligence and make them two agencies, as we separated the CIA from the FBI. But how long before the new domestic counter-intelligence agency decides once again that anti-abortion and anti-illegal immigration groups are the main threat to our national security? Our problems are systemic, endemic, and chronic.
Trump tried to move the Department of Agriculture to a place that makes more sense and the Deep State have a conniption! Employees were given the option to move with no cut in salary or take a golden severance package. DC salaries in the hinterlands would be opulent. They still had a conniption.
If they take away the soap box, the ballot box, and the jury box, there’s only one box left.
“The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed – where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees.” -Judge Alex Kozinski, 9th Circuit, dissent to Silviera v Lockyer.
Snow on Pine serves up a good reminder of how this government is playing for keeps against its own people. Never in my lifetime did I think such was possible.
}}} OBloody: I do not believe the military would obey that order.
I’m open to argument, Neo, but I see no reason why it would not.
We’re not talking about shooting people (unless they shoot first), we are talking about closing down offices and premises.
The biggest concern there is, obviously, Posse Comitatus. A clear argument can be made that he is not “enforcing the law” (which the army is forbidden to do), he’s choosing who to act to apply his own decisions, with the presumption that the FBI is so far gone that they would refuse his orders in direct insurrection, and, faced with the military, the paramilitary would back down.
}}} Neo: you are correct. The current crop of General Officers/Flag Officers owe their allegiance to the Democrats, the majority having been put in place by Democrats.
As to this assertion, one presumes they have the intelligence to both have former General officers and Flag officers on speed dial, and if anyone refuses to obey, take his resignation on the spot and put in one of the former officers.
There are a lot of good people out there.
}}} The former employees most in need of being interviewed under oath (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, etc) were the ones most vulnerable to prosecution. So, invoking the 5th would have been perfectly justifiable. They had all (except for Page) been fired for cause, so couldn’t be compelled to testify as a condition of future employment.
The solution to “taking the 5th” is pretty straightforward: Provide limited immunity for their utterances.
If they are not able to incriminate themselves, then they can’t refuse to answer questions.
A compelling and persuasive argument that it is too late to save America from the internal corruption that is destroying it. Victor Davis Hanson offers a compelling analogy; that today’s elite bear a striking resemblance to the elite that governed the South prior to the Civil War. He makes that analogy at 11:23 into the video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ggNbVd8f3M
“But did he have the power to compel their testimony? ”
I would say yes, because Durham did have the power to prosecute and did so. It would mighty odd to give prosecuting power without also giving testimony compelling power—
UNLESS
Durham needed to get Garland’s permission to compel testimony. If so, it’s mighty odd that any such denial hasn’t leaked.
Still a puzzle.
IIRC, the President submits a proposed budget to Congress (the House); ths House does with it what it wants, from “approved as submitted” to “discarded immediately,” or anything in between. “Anything in between” usually winds up being “some remains intact, most gets modified by House members” and, eventually, the House votes on what it considers a final package. That package gets sent to the Senate where the process is repeated, resulting in a modified budget which the Senate and House must “reconcile” into something both can agree with. That gets voted on, passed, and sent to the President for signature.
What if the President submits a budget with no monies contained for the FBI and announces he will refuse to sign a budget that contains any appropriation for the FBI? Theoretically, the United States government grinds to a halt on October 1 because no authorization to spend exists. In actuality, a Continuing Resolution gets passed to stave off the “crisis,” and Congress (both houses) entertain overruling the President’s veto.
I suspect the smart path would be to retain the existence of the FBI but in much reduced form, say a 30% budget reduction. The President appoints cabinet officers who, after achieving Senate approval, become charged with the responsibility of running his or her agency. The right agency head at Justice (“right” in the eyes of a President wishing to shut down the FBI) could manage the FBI in such a manner that while it may still exist, has employees and a building for them, becomes so severely hamstrung from financial and operational restraints that its mission must devolve to a basic core function.
Implemented over the course of several presidential terms, the FBI may continue to exist, but in name only.
Is Trump the right guy to do this? I don’t know; I doubt it, and I’ll use the Department of Education as example. Less than zero justification exists within the Constitution for a federal Education agency, no identifiable improvement in American K-12 education improvement can be credited to it, and multiple Republican presidents have vowed to kill it.
Trump chose Betsy DeVos to run it. An opportunity existed to select an agency head who could be charged with the mission of “you have four years to reduce the Department of Education to zero or as close to zero as can be achieved. Do it and make sure you have the receipts to justify it.”
Instead, Trump selected DeVos, who loves education and thinks it’s just the greatest thing; “reform, not replace” won again and the DOE budget grew unabated.
Cavendish:
Trump is not right for this moment at all. Too much baggage. Too many bad decisions. He walked right into the FBI’s January 6 trap.
If we defund and rid ourselves of the FBI, whatever shall we do with that vast new complex the government built for them?
I know! I know! Give it to illegal aliens!
Trump chose Betsy DeVos to run it. An opportunity existed to select an agency head who could be charged with the mission of “you have four years to reduce the Department of Education to zero or as close to zero as can be achieved. Do it and make sure you have the receipts to justify it.”
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[drums fingers]. The Department of Education was incorporated by an act of Congress. The regulatory, service, and welfare programs it runs are those enacted by Congress. It’s appropriations are those approved by Congress. DeVos could unload some sh!tty regulations and attempt to persuade Congress to cut budgets, but that’s all.
“First of all, for Trump to even attempt to do any of that it would be necessary for him to get elected, which I don’t think will happen.” BINGO!!!
William Shipley attempts to answer the kind of questions we all have from the POV of a criminal defense attorney and federal prosecutor with decades of experience as both. If you believe the offenses lead to the top making the offenders too big to jail then the best we can hope for is as full an expose as possible.
https://shipwreckedcrew.substack.com/p/john-durhams-report-concludes-that
Mark Wauck further explains how FISA essentially immunizes the offenders leading to the inevitable explanation that mistakes were made.
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/fisa-and-the-constitution
The Post Nixon and Post 9/11 reforms led to the establishment of the system that empowers the bureaucracy to lawfully work around our civil liberties. Congress empowered it. Presidents, AGs, FBI and IC heads exploited it. Only Congress can shut it down. That’s unlikely to happen because the powers that be are all using and keeping each others secrets.
One problem I see is that the type of people who are most likely to be targeted by the State are the type of people about half the population think should be targeted by the state and…means are irrelevant.
physicsguy—Perhaps our understanding of what is happening is all wrong, and we’re missing the forest for the trees.
What if what we are seeing are not really the uncoordinated actions —admittedly destructive of our society and of the Republic—of leftists in this or that Department or Agency but are, in actuality, the unfolding of the elements of a very detailed and comprehensive plan to destroy the Republic which started to be implemented some decades ago, one of whose telltale signs were things like non-military governmental agencies buying up large quantities of guns and ammo?
Congress has not passed a “Federal Budget” that went through the Appropriation process since 2008. All are “Continuing Resolutions.” The Administrative State” has taken over. Some of that I blame on McCain-Finegold, which required Congress members to spend their time fund raising. They then turned over the legislative duties of office to staff. Most Congress members, like Paul Ryan for example, have never held a job outside government. “The Black Middle Class” are all government employees. The federal workforce now exceeds 11 million. Very soon interest on the national debt will exceed the defense budget. I do agree that post-9/11 the bureaucracy has been out of control. I see no solution.
“Embalm, cremate, bury at sea – take no chances.”
Winston Churchill
Trump tried to move the Department of Agriculture to a place that makes more sense and the Deep State have a conniption!
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If I’m not mistaken, about 85% of all federal employees work at field locations outside the DC commuter belt. It’s going to vary from one department to another, of course. Moving headquarters staff to Omaha is a gimmick. The problem is not that headquarters employees have their offices and homes around Washington. The problem is that there are agencies which merit liquidation w/o regard to where you put the headquarters. A partial list:
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Department of Housing and Urban Development: send the regulatory office which deals with lead paint to the EPA and shut the rest down.
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Department of Education: send the statistical collection apparat to the Department of Labor, append any office which regulates vendor to client transactions to the Federal Trade Commission, set up an independent agency to run a residue of the student loan program, and send the bulk of the student loan program to a resolutions authority to shut down. Shut down everything else toute-de-suite.
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Department of Energy: set up a stand-alone agency to supervise the national laboratories (or assign them to a newly incorporated ‘science and technology’ department along with NASA and some other agencies. Send the statistical collection services to the Commerce Department. Send the weapons factories to the Defense Department. Append the intelligence collectors to DHS for an interim period. Shut down any residue.
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HHS: sort its components into 10 piles. For nine of the piles, you assign the agencies to an extant department, assign to a newly-incorporated department, or set up as stand-alone agencies. The 10th pile consists of programs and administrative offices you shut down. Among the closures: the Administration on Aging, six of the nine components of the Administration on Children and Families, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Among the programs closed down should be TANF, LIHEAP, Head Start, and special benefits for clientele with good lobbies. (AIDS patients were fashionable at one time).
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USDA: Shut down the Food and Nutrition Service (SNAP, school lunches) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (a grant money vent pipe), the ‘rural development apparat’ Establish a set of countervaling tariffs to protect American farmers from subsidies enacted abroad and shut down the Farm Service Agency. If private insurers will get into the crop insurance business, shut that down too.
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Small Business Administration: send its loan portfolio to a resoultions authority and shut it down
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National Science Foundation: send the Office of Polar Programs to the Interior Department and shut it down.
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National Endowment for the Arts: shut it down.
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National Endowment for the Humanities: auction off the National Humanities Center to sealed bidders from among North Carolina schools and shut down the rest.
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Corporation for Public Broadcasting: shut it down.
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Intergovernmental agencies: there are about three dozen for which you could make a passable case for belonging. Leave the rest.
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Centers for Disease Control: break it up into pieces, sending the statistical collectors to the Labor Department, appending the emergency response crew to FEMA, sending the research component to NIH, sending the foreign aid component to USAID.
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Federal highway program: in regard to the U.S. Route system and the Interstates, define the routes, distribute the signage, make quality inspections, and make a provision in law for the federal government to impose trusteeships on segments of road if state authorities do not repair them to spec. Allow state governments to impose tolls on short-haul Interstates. In re long haul Interstates, set up federal toll booths. Distribute the toll revenue to dedicated funds in each state on a per-acres-of-macadam basis. The funds would have one purpose: maintenance of long-haul Interstates and amortization of any bond issues relating. Otherwise, end grants to state and local governments for road maintenance and leave the FHA to do inspections.
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FAA: have it operate the air traffic control system and put the safety regulators in a separate agency.
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Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: it’s a grant distributor. Shut it down.
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EPA: send the ‘environmental works’ projects to the Interior department and end other grants to state and local government. Leave the regulatory component.
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FCC: end the telecom subsidies
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“Grants, subsidies, and contributions”: this is a commonplace category in the federal budget Appendix. These have the following beneficiaries:
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a. Foreign governments: sparing, preferring in lieu of grants the provision of services, grants of equipment, and grants of credits to purchase equipment.
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b. Intergovernment agencies. Make the required contributions to those the government joins, which should not exceed about three dozen.
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c. NGOs operating abroad. No grants except in emergency situations.
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d. State and local government. For local government: payments for services rendered (e.g. renting office space), indemnities for torts resulting from federal regulatory decisions (decided on by administrative tribunals), payment in lieu of taxes on federal property, and disaster relief. For states and territories the same, bar the payment-in-lieu of taxes for aught but DC and the small insular dependencies. Also for states and territories: grants to finance Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and a residue of the federal highway program. In addition, a general grant whose distribution formula is skewed for the more impecunious jurisdictions. NO other special-purpose grants to state and local government. General revenue sharing for local government should be handled by state governments.
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e. For corporations and persons with institutional addresses (including government corporations affiliated with state governments, like state colleges) operating domestically: end all grants. In particular, have federal agencies do their research in-house, picking the brains of university-based researchers by awarding term fellowships which include an indemnity to the researchers home institution for loss of the researchers services. In lieu of in-house research, let out contracts to be awarded by sealed bids. No grants.
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f. Individual households: discussion is a subset of welfare policy.
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Government loan programs: end them.
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Government loan portfolios and equity stakes: liquidate all of them. Agencies and corporations which do nothing else must be shut down. That would include the Export-Import Bank, Ginne Mae, the Farm Credit System, &c.
Most Congress members, like Paul Ryan for example, have never held a job outside government.
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Too often true, especially in the leadership. Not sure ‘most’ is the case in the Republican caucus, or that ‘never’ is typical in either caucus.
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“The Black Middle Class” are all government employees.
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They aren’t. About 18% of federal employees are black, v. 12.6% of the workforce in general. The excess is (if I’m not mistaken) accounted for by the heavy presence of black employees in the Postal Service. The thing is, in the private sector, deliverymen are disproportionately black as well; it’s the most common occupation of all among black males. I haven’t found a straightforward racial breakdown of state and local employees. However, the BLS does provide breakdowns by industrial sector. One sector is composed entirely of public employees and some have both public and private-sector employees. Blacks are abnormally common in ‘public administration’ (17.6%), ‘health care and social assistance’ (17.7%), ‘management, administration, and waste’ (15.4%), ‘transportation and utilities’ (20.8%). They tend to hug the mean in most other sectors (10-13%), with low participation in construction (6.7%), extractive industries (5.4%), and agriculture (3.4%).
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The federal workforce now exceeds 11 million.
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No, north of 3 million.
I will vote for the Republican candidate in the General Election – even if it is DeSantis – and for Trump in the primary. My opposition to DeSantis in the primaries can be summed up with these three points: Dishonest, Distraction, and Doctrine.
1) Dishonest: DeSantis is required by state law to resign as governor if he wishes to run for another office (letter & spirit). Yet he has not done so despite the fact that he has clearly been running for President for months and months. And he does not done so despite the fact that the Republican Lt Gov. would succeed him if he did resign.
The significance of his actions is even more critical now that It has become clear that the USA has a two-tiered justice system – and some are “above the law”.
2) Distraction: I support many of the positions/ actions that DeSantis has taken. Just like I support many of the positions/ actions that other Governors have taken – often under more difficult circumstances (see Youngkin in VA).
Yet my respect for DeSantis has declined for the simple reason that he and his staff do not appear to respect the public. They behave as if we do not understand the difference between “shiny objects” and substance. And they behave as if we do not understand that he is using his office as Governor to primarily promote DeSantis – versus to primarily care for the citizens of FL – even if the citizens receive some benefit too.
DeSantis’ use of Florida’ Governor office to promote himself will only increase – what would he be without his “distraction pulpit” – which is why he refused to honor the letter & spirit of the law.
3) Doctrine: It is not DeSantis fault that the responsibilities of a state Executive (Governor) are not as complex or challenging as those of the federal Executive (President). Nor is it his fault that his cumulative experiences to date do not match those of someone who has held the federal Executive office. Yet a “bushel basket” of distractions – while necessary or useful – is not the makings of a Presidential Doctrine.
“Make America Great Again” was the makings of the most consequential Presidential Doctrine in our lifetimes: Economic Security is National Security. DeSantis has nothing comparable – the makings – and to date has not demonstrated that he ever will. **
** = To be fair, most Presidential candidates and Presidents have not either; yet, that is the bar that must be cleared now.
***
Name the three most consequential Presidents in your lifetime; then name their Presidential Doctrine.
Art Deco…”management, administration, and waste’…is that an actual BLS category???!!!???
crasey, thanks much for that comprehensive, if sobering, shipwreckedcrew link.
Would seem that those who methodically and with malice aforethought abuse the law to persecute others without mercy are protected by that SAME law they consistently—and so easily—distort and weaponize…flout…and ignore.
physicsguy—I know that it was thought by some that those government purchases of large quantities of the most used calibers of ammunition were a backhanded way for the Obama Administration to decrease the amount of ammunition available for the civilian market while, at the same time, causing the prices of what ammunition there was available for civilians to buy to increase.
But, the fact of the matter is that, whatever secondary benefits there might have been to these large ammo purchases, these non-military government agencies which— it would seem, had no logical reason to purchase such weaponry or large amounts of ammo—still got a hell of a lot of guns and ammo to store somewhere, ready for immediate use.
Neo keeps telling us that all her well-educated, liberal friends are good people with good hearts. It’s just that they are too invested in their political affiliations, too filled with distaste for the evil conservatives, to question the blatant and obvious lies they are fed every day by the news media and their Democrat heroes.
The only way to address any and all of the Big Brother abuses is to bypass the news media and take the truth to these people with good hearts and good minds that Neo knows.
If even 10% of reliable Democrat votes and a big majority of independents become convinced that we are not experiencing “politics as usual”, we force the Deep State to show its hand. They either lose elections, or they get more abusive and more blatantly criminal. And then we find out if we the people have what it takes to keep our republic.
The only path to resolution requires the education of the decent liberals with good hearts and minds. If they don’t exist, nothing else matters.
Then, of course, there was the announced intention of the government to push for the hiring of the incredible number of 83,000 new IRS agents.
Why, in God’s name, would the IRS need that astronomical number of new agents?
But could these various actions start to create a pattern if you remember then President Obama’s puzzling and ominous call several years ago—several lines inserted seemingly at random at the end of a routine speech on another topic—for the creation of a civilian force that would be just as well funded and just as large as our military?
What follows is from a DOJ Manual. As I indicated yesterday, most FBI employees cannot appeal adverse actions to the MSPB. Internal processes could be modified or eliminated by the President.
The legal framework for federal agencies to address employee misconduct through what is called non-adverse actions (suspensions of 14 days or less, letters of censure, and oral reprimands) and also through adverse actions (suspensions of greater than 14 days, demotions, and removals) is established in 5 U.S.C. Chapter 75 and 5 C.F.R. Part 752. However, the procedural protections outlined in these regulations do not apply for most FBI employees.3
For example, FBI employees cannot appeal disciplinary decisions to the Merit Systems Protection Board like most other federal employees. 5 U.S.C. § 7511(b)(8). However, the FBI has established a process that allows employees to appeal their discipline internally.4
FN3: FBI employees to whom these procedural protections apply during the disciplinary process include preference-eligible veterans. 5 U.S.C. § 7511(a)(1)(B). Veterans are preference eligible if they are disabled or served on active duty during certain specified time periods or in military campaigns. 5 U.S.C. § 2108.
FN4: The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is an independent, quasi-judicial agency in the Executive Branch that was established by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978, which was codified by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-454, 92 Stat. 1111. The Act authorized the MSPB to hear appeals of various agency decisions, most of which are appeals of agencies’ adverse actions.
TimK—All well and good, if all the people involved intend to “follow the book,” all of the rules and procedures, and to obey the law.
But what if many of the people involved have no intention of following the book, but intend to work outside the confines of those rules and procedures and the laws, and to do whatever it is they want, regardless of “the book,” those rules and procedures, and the law?
Because, right now, it looks as if a lot of high level government bureaucrats/officials have simply ignored the rules and procedures, and the law—except when they are useful as a cover for their actions—and have gone ahead and done whatever they’ve wanted to do—against that law and those rules and procedures.
TimK cont’d—Thus, for instance, the refusal to turn over documents or information, with the excuse that such documents or information are part of “an ongoing investigation,” or are a personnel matter and thus private and not releasable.
Thus, as well, the feigned inability of witnesses before Congress to “remember,” to “recall,” or to have “specific memories “ of all sorts of key people, places, actions and things.
From reading retired fbi agent Mark Wauck the fbi was centralized under Mueller and the top management does not come up. The focus has become counter terrorism, which has become anyone anti the establishment. It’s become highly politicized / weoponized.
And the patriot act and Fisa with a corrupt judiciary has made it worse.
“Biden”‘s Praetorian Guard in the making?
“IRS Hires Armed Guards Across Nation”—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/irs-agents-criminal-investigation/2023/04/28/id/1117883/
“Amid attacks on lawmakers, Capitol Police chief says force now nationwide ‘protective agency’;
“The department’s budget has more than doubled since 2015”—
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/capitol-police-transitioning-protective-oriented-agency-lawmakers-and-spouses
This last item is Nancy Pelosi’s dream come true… Wonder of wonders…
Oh, they could zero out the DOJ’s budget (of which the FBI is a part) and a GOP could sign such a budget into law (along w/CIA & DOS). When it comes to the FBI, why not? It’s only been around for 100 years and under Hoover was corrupt from the start.
But the Dems (and by Dems always remember when I use the term it includes the MFM) would scream bloody murder that we’re opening up the country to threats to “Our Democracy (TM)!” Whatever they have in mind with Democracy it’s unconstitutional, and their Democracy and the FBI are NatSec threats to the country and Whatever is left of our REPUBLIC.
I think the case could be made but they would have had to start years if not decades ago and those in office would fold in any case.
Since the DOJ/FBI are the enforcement/prosecutor’s arm of leviathan (the Dems being the party of leviathan) anybody trying to “prep the battlefield” would find themselves in front of a potemkin judge in a show trial that would make Stalin blush to be convicted on invented charges.
The DOS is likewise worse than useless. It’s currently tied in knots because on Blinken’s authority they made the use of pronouns mandatory on all internal emails. One thing led to another and now they are publicly offering counseling to anyone traumatized if they felt misgendered. I’d say it’s funny except other countries are rectilinear in horror. And the more from the and center tha DOS puts advancing the cause of the LGBTQ++ agenda for domestic pandering purposes they lose the ability to read the room. Now countries in Africa such as Uganda are responding to the DOS LGBTQ global absolutist evangelist force by making homosexuality a hanging offense.
As a former Naval Intel Officer I hated sharing Intel with the embassy. I always felt like asking if I should just go ahead and call Beijing and Moscow or if I should wait for them to call.
The CIA is the worst of the lot. Like Joe Biden, never underestimate their ability to eff things up. Every time I had the misfortune to interact with them all they did was subtract from sum of human knowledge. When I was staff at commands overseas I’d get a call from them occasionally and the end result was always the same. I’d get off the phone and ask the secretary if I could speak with the Admiral. When told I’d go in and say. “Sir, CIA called.” He’d shake his head and tell me to go on. “That thing I told you two days ago is no longer unclassified. Now we can’t use it.”
Those are the rules. CIA calls on a secure phone and tells you something it counts as official confirmation and that makes it classified. F***ers!
I can’t affirmatively say all their analysts suck since I haven’t met them all, but all their covert types do. Recall Valerie Plame.
She was supposedly a “NOC” (Non-Official Cover) agent. It’s supposedly a dangerous job. Not the way we do it. Out CIA sucks so bad this is the safest job in the world.
Scooter Libbey who can hang for all I care didn’t out her. Neither did any other Bush Era officials. DOS outed her years earlier when some idiot sent a list of NOCs to the US interests section at the Swiss embassy in Havana for what could only be the shopping convenience of Cuban intelligence.
Just imagine the multiple layers of stupidity it took to get that list into the hands of the Cubans and therefore every communist country on earth. Now our NOCs were their assets and they’d protect them so they could pass false information to the USG. If they could stop pointing and laughing.
A man whose opinion I had reason to trust told me when it comes to trade craft were grade schoolers in a world full of PhDs.
Has any one of these phoney amnesiacs ever actually been punished in any meaningful way for their affrontery?
I can’t think of a one.
The current crop of General Officers/Flag Officers owe their allegiance to the Democrats, the majority having been put in place by Democrats.
A nice pushback to that grim fact was the letter to Kevin McCarthy and other House officers of 5/16/23, signed by a few dozen retired Flag Officers, which is off topic here, but did a clear and explicit job making public their resistance to the DEI plague now infesting the US military. Likely this subgroup was largely RETIRED by Democrats, beginning with Obama.
Autocorrect, gotta love it. How you go from “reacting” to “rectilinear ” I’ll never know.
I should add that the CIA is so bad at its assigned mission that in my estimation for purposes of self-presrvation and maybe sheer boredom they became a domestic political operation.
A new Mission Impossible is out in July. Enjoy it. Try to forget when you see that competent organization in action that it’s just a movie.
Snow on Pine: I was referring to what could be done by a new Republican President. Since most FBI employees do not have statutory limits on discipline, they are essentially terminable at will. So a thorough house-cleaning would be eminently doable. It wouldn’t require any legislation at all.
I’m not sure that FBI would stop being funded even if Congress cut funding. I suspect Biden would still funnel over money. He needs the support and protection of the secret police orgs.
Here is the DOJ Office of Inspector General review from which I got information about FBI rights (or lack thereof) to appeal disciplinary actions:
https://oig.justice.gov/reports/FBI/e0902/final.pdf
TimK—You assume that anyone who is fired, is told to “go,” will meekly turn in his keys, gear, and passwords, just pack up the shit from his or her desk, cubicle, or office in a box, and trudge out the front door, never to return again.
But what if he or she didn’t, what if a lot of those fired, being militant leftists, “resisted.”
Who would you have come to physically eject them?
What if, say, those fired left but still retained access to some systems, or had likeminded friends who remained on the inside, comrades who would be willing to help them continue their destructive work within and without the organization?
How would you deal with that situation?
Such a purge would probably not be very easily accomplished.
Having worked in the government—military and civilian—for some 25 years in one capacity or the other—I’ve seen it take years of hard work for a supervisor—one who spent increasingly large chunks of each day, every day, for a couple of years—to take the steps necessary to build a case for firing just one particularly bad problem employee, essentially at the cost of her sanity and her career.
I’ve also seen people who have been very deserving of being fired get a lawyer and fight their termination, only to return to their positions in triumph a few years later, having won all the salary they would have earned had they retained their position, plus promotions to the next higher grade as part of the settlement.
Thereafter, they could flout whatever rules and regulations they wanted to; no one wanted to tangle with them again, and potentially ruin their life and career in the process .
Snow on Pine: I worked as an attorney for the Merit Systems Protection Board for 28 years before I retired. I know more than a little about federal employment law. In fact, I am the sole MSPB employee to ever win a whistleblower retaliation claim against the MSPB. Yes, I expect those fired to pack up their stuff and leave. If there’s a problem with that, a call to the Federal Protective Service should do the trick.