Guess what Republicans? We really need the Dept of Education, EPA and Energy

[Foxfyre]

We may need parts of these dept but the EPA is way out of control. They wont you develop anything on a piece of land because of a frog or a lizard that may or may not be endangered. They are bullies and use their powers to get their way...

I have no problems with challenging individual regulations or rulings. I have no problems with accessing our court system to challenge the EPA. But to totally disband a crucial agency that has done much to protect our country is irresponsible

And yet that seems to be the Republican plan for everything. They don't want to fix anything, they want to destroy it. They are treating the country and our government like they are renting it.

They have been creating a self fulfilling prophecy. Republicans put morons in charge of these departments then point to them as failures. (Heck of a job Brownie)

You are very wrong my friend. It is not a matter of 'destroying' government or government agencies, but restoring it to its original intent. To say that Republicans want to destroy government is as silly as saying that Democrats want government to become 100% totalitarian and the people have no rights at all.

Thomas Sowell once wrote on Obamacare that the left keeps saying "Okay, if you dismantle Obamacare, what do you replace it with?" His response was, when you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?

When you have government agencies and programs that have long outlived or overreached their original functions and exist for mostly no other reason than to fund their own bureaucracy, it is time to put out the fire. These agencies and programs are swallowing hundreds of billions of resources year in and year out with little or no benefit to the taxpayer who are freighting the bill. There should be no reverence for these mostly useless or runaway progams. Defunding them is just putting out a fire and there is no need to 'fix' or replace them.

Let's transfer the necessary and essential functions out of these bloated bureaucracies for a small, streamlined, functional agency to manage and then shut down the rest.

And then what we must keep, such as the Dept. of Defense, send in auditors who will be ruthless in cutting out the fat, waste, graft and corruption that are rapidly overshadowing the essential functions of defense. . . .AND. . . .stop the wholesale raiding of budgets for essential functions to use for other bloated or unnecessary and/or self-serving programs.

 

[Alan Stallion]

Thomas Sowell once wrote on Obamacare that the left keeps saying "Okay, if you dismantle Obamacare, what do you replace it with?" His response was, when you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?

Most excellent retort.

 

[Flopper]

We aren't drilling in the tiny TINY portion of ANWR, an area that is literally an arctic desert bereft of human occupation, minimal wildlife occupation, and with no aesthetic beauty whatsoever because the EPA won't approve ANY process for going after the substantial oil reserves there.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have burned up when we lost California homes to wildfires because the EPA would not allow the homeowners to clear the brush away from their homes due to that MIGHT disturb the habitat of some protected rat. (I'm sure those fires didn't disturb that habitat though.)

We haven't built a major, large capacity refinery in this country since 1977, mostly because the EPA regulations make it far too difficult and expensive to do so. The few very small refineries and expansions that have finally met EPA specifications and have been built since then--the last in 2008 in Wyoming--have not handled more than a tiny fraction of the increase in demand since 1977.

We have millions of acres of prime cropland producing crops for ethanol, almost all at a cost to the taxpayer, because the government is making it more lucrative to use for that purpose than to grow food crops. And, in addition to that consuming large quantities of taxpayer monies as no ethanol plant has yet turned a profit, we are also seeing the higher costs of fruit and produce at the supermarket along with a much higher amount of imported produce coming in which has to be affecting trade balances.

We recently had a plastics manufacturer wanting to build a plant here in Albuquerque and he had bid on some property that suited his needs continent on him being able to get the necessary permits. After three years of waiting for EPA studies and approval to be given, he gave up and took his millions of dollars and 800 jobs to Texas. Shortly after that the EPA approved a chicken processing outfit--a much MUCH dirtier operation than the plastics manufacturing would have been--on that same land. As that expanded an existing operation, net new jobs, about 15. I suppose it was just coincidence--according to a local investigative reporter--that the chicken outfit had made a large donation to the Democratic Party??????

There are hundreds, probably thousands of examples like this that should be of concern to Americans of whatever political ideology. Reform doesn't seem possible. Just scrap the darn thing and start over with the small, efficient, effective agency that the EPA was when it first started out.

Reform may be difficult but it's not impossible. Scrapping it is. Environmental protection has strong support with the public. To scrap the agency, you have to repeal the laws and that's not going to happen.

The size of the Dept. would have little effect on the headline grabbers you listed. ANWR is protected by laws and international treaties. The EPA would move to stop drilling regardless of their size. If the EPA was seriously reduced in size, the super funds used to cleanup toxic waste would most probably be cut serious as would services to businesses such as education and and certification.

I'm sorry but I'm not buying it. When an agency becomes so big that it exists only for itself, it is time to dismantle it and start over. All they have to do is pass legislation that assigns the necessary functions of the EPA to other agencies, then defund and dismantle it. There is nothing, not even Supreme Court decisions, that cannot be undone if we have the will and competence to do it when necessary.

No, Congress cannot just pick and choose what environmental legislation is to be enforced. The laws would have to be repealed or changed. If not, every environmental group in the country would be suing the government.

If by we, you mean the American people, your plan is dead in the water, because environmental protection has the strong support by the public.

"Three out of four of those Americans surveyed, including 61% of the Republicans, say "Congress should let the EPA do its job," according to a new poll by NRDC.
Most Americans Oppose Restrictions on EPA, Poll Finds | Reuters

 

[Flopper]

What could be worse than closing down key agencies at critical points in our history?

At a time when our children are falling woefully behind other countries, Republicans want to kill the Dept of Education

I get your drift.

Our Founding Fathers did not know how to read or write. Thank's god for the Department of Education.

At a time when Greenhouse gasses are affecting our climate.......Republicans want to close the Environmental Protection Agency

yep. Globull warming is a reality.(wink, wink)

At a time when we are at the whim of an unstable middle east for oil imports......Republicans want to close the Dept of Energy

The Department of Energy was created in the wake of the oil crisis of the 1970s and was signed into existence by President Jimmy Carter on August 4, 1977. Its responsibilities were the nation’s nuclear weapons program, a nuclear reactor for the U.S. Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production.

It currently employs 16,000 federal workers and, in 2009, had an annual budget of $24.1 billion. President Obama appointed Dr. Steven Chu as its Secretary. Dr. Chu is perhaps best known for recommending that global warming can be avoided by painting the roofs and highways white in order to reflect back the sun’s radiation. Will someone please get a net and throw it over Dr. Chu?

.

He didn't say global warming could be avoided. He said it could be slowed down. Nice distortion of the truth.

Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, said the unusual proposal would mean homes in hot countries would save energy and money on air conditioning by deflecting the sun's rays.
More pale surfaces could also slow global warming by reflecting heat into space rather than allowing it to be absorbed by dark surfaces where it is trapped by greenhouse gases and increases temperatures.

Obama's green guru calls for white roofs - Telegraph

 

[bripat9643]

No, Congress cannot just pick and choose what environmental legislation is to be enforced. The laws would have to be repealed or changed. If not, every environmental group in the country would be suing the government.

If by we, you mean the American people, your plan is dead in the water, because environmental protection has the strong support by the public.

"Three out of four of those Americans surveyed, including 61% of the Republicans, say "Congress should let the EPA do its job," according to a new poll by NRDC.
Most Americans Oppose Restrictions on EPA, Poll Finds | Reuters

Obama seems to think he can pick and choose which immigration laws to enforce. Also which voting rights laws to enforce. So your claim may be good in theory, but in practice the Administration determines which laws to enforce.

 

[Foxfyre]

Professor Chu comes with a remarkable resume and great credentials, and I don't think the staunchest anti-Obama person can really ethically diminish that.

The only problem is whether he is an opportunist for funding by supporting anthropogenic global warming or whether he is genuinely convinced that it is a problem. It is pretty clear from his statements and resume, however, that we can't look to him for energy independence in our lifetime as he is unlikely to look for better ways to use clean coal or any fossil fuels.

 

[bripat9643]

We Agree.

You can't fix government. You can only cut it down to its proper size, which is about 10% of its current size.

The problem is that there is so much abuse, we forget that there is a legitimate purpose. We should examine that and trim the fat. Where the Government has Authority, it needs to show cause, whatever it is responsible for, there needs to be transparency, accountability, and oversight. Is there a legitimate function being carried out? To what end? At what cost? Is the goal being achieved? Is the program barely holding it's own, or is there something being accomplished?

Let's not confuse the need for even Major Reform, fine Tuning, with refusal to adapt to circumstance. We remove that which obstructs correct action without removing legitimate function.

You're naive if you think the bureaucracy can be reformed. Democracy is an inexorable degenerative process that causes society to implode. Politicians will never implement the reforms you suggest. They have created all the current problems. Why would they undo the handiwork they are so proud of? What incentive do they have to take on the bureaucracy? The answer is: none.

 

[Cammmpbell]

What could be worse than closing down key agencies at critical points in our history?

At a time when our children are falling woefully behind other countries, Republicans want to kill the Dept of Education

At a time when Greenhouse gasses are affecting our climate.......Republicans want to close the Environmental Protection Agency

At a time when we are at the whim of an unstable middle east for oil imports......Republicans want to close the Dept of Energy

I worked at the nuclear weapons material processing facilities at Oak Ridge, TN for 41 years. People who talk about closing down the depatment of energy have their heads so far up their collective ass that they will never see daylight or smell fresh air again. There are weapons R&D, processing assembly and disassembly labs and facilities from coast to coast and border to border. The largest nuclear fission materials storage facility in the world is right here in Oak Ridge. DOE manages and coordinates every move made by the prime contractor companies who operate all this complicated activity. An example of the type activities which occur on a daily basis is when we bought thousands of old nukes from Russia and then later from Syria. They were transported back to the U S and disassembled at Pantex...Amarillo, TX and the materials brought back to Oak Ridge for a final inspection and storage.

I wonder who they think would take on that literally world wide activity if the DOE were to be shut down.