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Special Report
Abolish the Department of Education
Will House GOP have the courage to tackle Reagan’s unfulfilled promise as sequester looms?
(Page 5 of 5)
These kids — and their kids — will grow up in a world in which the angry refrain will be “my parents bankrupted the country and my future so for the bureaucrats in the Department of Education.”
There are surely any number of places in the government that could be used to begin the limited-government debate in serious fashion. But for reasons as real as they are symbolic — it was Reagan’s first choice — there is one place that is as good as any to start.
Education and bureaucracy are not synonymous.
The question is: are there any House Republicans willing to stand up and say so?
Then do something about it?
By introducing a bill that, as Ronald Reagan suggested, would abolish the Department of Education because, to quote Reagan’s 1980 platform:
The Republican Party is determined to restore common sense and quality to education for the sake of all students, especially those for whom learning is the highway to equal opportunity…
Determined?
How determined?
We shall see.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (120) | Leave a comment
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Gary B| 2.26.13 @ 7:08AM
Dissolve the Departments of Education and Energy? Fat chance...
Jacob McCandles| 2.26.13 @ 9:19AM
We do not have enough citizens that want limited government. That is the problem, and we shall never recover from it.
Gary B| 2.26.13 @ 12:17PM
If the history of human behavior is any indication, we'll have to experience a total collapse before the message gets through. Musical chairs comes to mind. So far, there have only been enough chairs for the government's cronies. Eventually, there won't be any chairs. Gary North has written extensively about this.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 12:55PM
I am taking Friday off because surely the world is going to end and I do not want to be at work when that happens. They let every working person take a 2% hit on January one and I do not recall them saying that with that increase our cars will not start, our houses will be cold, our children will starve and criminals will take over our house. Those making more than 250K took an even bigger hit and if they lived in Cali well they got hammered. If this tiny cut is going to cause a calamity well I think it is time to let the country cave in around our ears and we start over using the constitution as it was written and what was intended. Trash the whole federal government and get all new people in there.
I didn't write it, but I think it fits right in with what you're saying.
Gary B| 2.26.13 @ 8:22PM
Yes, it does.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:39PM
You spelled colostomy wrong.
Sixgun| 2.27.13 @ 4:42PM
If I had to sequester my $10.00 per day lunch budget, that means I would have to cut my lunch budget down to $9.76, I think I could get by. It wouldn't be the end of my lunch.
Biff| 2.27.13 @ 6:57PM
If I understand the sequestration, your $10.00 lunch budget for 2013 would only grow to $10.10, instead of $10.30 - if you 'baseline' your lunch budget, that is.
Joellen| 2.26.13 @ 7:09AM
NO such thing as a coincedence Mr. Lord.
Yesterday, I spoke with my Congressmen's aide.
I had a list of talking points, and on that list the request the Republicans work on removing the Federal government OUT of the educational system.
You know what, the aide and I agreed wholeheartly on that one.
The trolls will retort with their ususal "oh woe is us, what about the poor areas"?
What about em. They'll have the opportunity to take charge and actually determine what type of education they wish their child to have.
CHOICE they call it.
And coming from a poor area and a product of the government education system, I speak of what I know of, it'll beat anything they have now.
You see that's the real difference between libs and Patriots, we truly believe that the people can get the job done,
the libs not so much.
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 8:32AM
Not to mention what has happened to the quality of public education and the cost of higher education since this agency was established.
John Navratil| 2.26.13 @ 9:05AM
Al Adab,
In truth the dismal trend pre-dates the Dept. of Education. Free High Schools are only one hundred years old. I graduated from one forty years ago and they were already in decline. In the 50's the government began getting involved, beginning with the National Science Foundation (remember "New Math") and it has been downhill every since.
By the way, there was nothing wrong with "New Math" and its set-theoretical approach. It was just the harbinger of things to come.
loulou| 2.26.13 @ 9:39AM
I don't like paying for public schools that I do not use.
John Navratil| 2.26.13 @ 10:25PM
loulou,
One must consider that you do benefit from an educated populace. You benefit when you do not have to teach the cashier how to count change. An educated populace is a public good, but the mechanism for achieving it should not be a government function.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:44PM
But we are endangered by an indoctrinated populace.
Why is it my responsibility to teach the cashier to count change? If they can't figure it out pretty quick they won't have a job. Seems like that should be incentive enough for them to learn on their own initiative.
We benefit from their being a well fed populace as well but that doesn't make us responsible for buying anyone but ourselves and our family food.
The population at large benefits from the fact that I am armed. Therefore the population at large should pay for my guns.
John Navratil| 2.27.13 @ 10:44PM
markenoff,
The reply is late and you may not see it. I apologize.
It is not the responsibility for either party in an exchange to meet the other's level of education. However, the exchange is facilitated by a common level of understanding.
I put it to you that it is in your interest that the person from whom you are buying beer knows how to count change. If they cannot, do you wish to forgo the purchase or the education. Perhaps the store owner should fire the cashier. (Perhaps the government should file DMV workers)
No doubt you are not responsible to feed or educate that person. But if you find yourself having to deal with that person, you will be obliged to do so.
Sixgun| 2.27.13 @ 4:45PM
I agree 100%, separation of school and state. I pay for private school for my kids, plus I pay taxes to educate other people's kids. No more gubermint schools.
lost| 2.26.13 @ 9:46AM
Is that the new math that they tried in the 70's? or the new new math they are trying to teach my kids from 1st thru 5 grades? What they are teaching now is just stupid, many kids struggle with it and most parents can not help the way the system wants it done. Then in 6th grade they have to learn long division and what they learned up to then is wasted.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:42AM
New math: 1 homo plus 1 homo equals a marriage. That's the new math.
Face it, the public schools are not about education. They are about indoctrination. My kids will never attend a public school. It would be bad for the other kids' self esteem when they learned how much smarter my kids are than they are. And my kids would probably spend all day correcting the teachers.
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 10:56AM
That is the problem created by the national government funding and setting the curriculum.
When they control what is taught, they control what is thought.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 12:57PM
It's my understanding that, ever since this Department was Created?
Grades have Gone Down.
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 5:44PM
I meant to write
It's my understanding that since this department was created grades have gone down.
Sometimes my brain scrambles what I intend to communcate. and another th
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 6:09PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
Grant Odoms| 2.26.13 @ 6:28PM
Why don't you ignore him. You seem obsessed with posting around the clock.
op top| 2.26.13 @ 6:31PM
TLP ignore anything? The man is obsessive-compulsive. He's compelled to respond. The man has serious mental problems, as evidenced by his posts.
anna k from emory u| 2.26.13 @ 10:45PM
You tell him op top. I hate this scourge of phony posters.
It's rainy in Brooklyn tonight. Cold, too.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:47PM
You spelled "...compelled to respond to liberal morons." wrong.
Butch| 2.26.13 @ 1:53PM
Lost, are you joking about your kids' learning long division in the sixth grade. My kids (80s) went to a Lutheran elementary school, and they learned long division in the THIRD grade, the same as I did long ago, in a public school, I might add. Seriously, are you kidding?
TLP: ACT scores peaked in 1962, the year I graduated from high school, and have declined steadily since, despite the test having been watered down numerous times since then. Mastering the early fundamentals is all about discipline, IMHO, which got lost for reasons we all know at about that same time. Giving my kids an all-private school education, nursery school through grad school, was a big sacrifice for my wife and me, but what are we here for if not for that? You have one shot in a lifetime to get educated. In retrospect, I don't regret a dime of it; however, at the time I was filled with resentment that I couldn't use the public schools to get the same result. At that time, to quote our then-newspaper editor, they were all about nothing but race mixing, period. Education had nothing to do with it.
CJW| 2.26.13 @ 4:22PM
Butch
You done good, brother.
We sent ours also to private grade school, Catholic grade school. We paid over 6K per year for the public school real estate tax, and then we paid the tuition of about over 60K total over the 15 years. Fortunately the Catholic grade schools are still reasonable for tuition, about 4K per year, but many are closing. They cannot pay the teachers like the public schools and many cannot afford it.
But I agree with you, the education was excellent, and they did well.
Butch| 2.26.13 @ 5:10PM
The Lutheran school went through the eighth grade. After that, I sent them to the Catholic girls' school here, which is arguably the best high school in the state. By the way, our kids played sports in the Parochial League, and some of those schools are now closed. For all you Catholics and Lutherans out there, God bless you for maintaining an elementary/high school school network.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:58PM
Spent 12 years in Catholic schools. Definitely turned out better than I would have in a public school being the little shit I was. In high school I was an instigator. When I got to ROTC I was a leader.
My parents got a break though. Every sixth kid was free so two of us cost them nothing.
My oldest sister also went to 12 years of Catholic school but home schooled her youngest 5 kids. They turned out better than the 3 that went through Catholic schools.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:51PM
I spent some time helping rebuild an orphange in Haiti. They had a dirt floor and one broken chalkboard. One which the kids (6th to 8th grade) were doing trigonometry. They did have some help since the local priest was a math geek and worked with them on an almost daily basis.
Biff| 2.27.13 @ 7:03PM
We spend more money per capita on education than any other nation, yet our children rank well down the list. What is the government's answer? More funding.
Conversely, we also spend more on health care than any nation, but we don't live any longer. But, interestingly enough, the answer given by Washington is to reduce spending - well, sort of...
Is it just me that's confused by all of this?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 7:54AM
In establishing a cabinet level department, a government needs to select a name for that matches a function that someone somewhere in the Department will be performing. As an example, deep in the budget of the Defense Department, there are actually employees called soldiers whose job it is to defend the country, i.e. staff fighting positions while bearing arms to repel a foreign invader. Even in the Homeland Security Department (for better and for worse), there are people actually employed by the Department in nearly every state who grope travelers in the hope that their flight will be more secure.
Still, within the Department of Education, I am not aware of a single school actually built, established and run by the Department, or a single teacher who teaches the same class of students for same school year, which is generally the process we refer to as education. As a result, it seems disingenuous to refer to this as the Department of Education. If Congress doesn’t have the will to abolish the Department, perhaps (in the spirit of Truth in Labeling laws) they might be willing to rename it The Department of where we make you send a lot of your money to Washington where we will siphon off a large part of it to pacify teachers’ unions, diversity and LGBT indoctrination agendas and bureaucrats before we send a little of it back to you in the form of partial funding for some teacher’s aide positions.
Mike G| 2.26.13 @ 8:59AM
Albert,
I agree with you on the need for a name change, but find your choice a little unwieldy. I propose we call it the Department of Indoctrination.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 9:16AM
That has promise, too (and would fit much more easily on the letterhead).
loulou| 2.26.13 @ 9:43AM
Now the lefties want to get their claws on our children for pre-school where the 3 year olds will undoubtedly be provided with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing left for parents to do.
SUBVET| 2.26.13 @ 10:04AM
I have a family member that has a boy in 6th grade he came home today and told his mom that they are going to be teaching sex ed and it's alright to be gay. Thank God my kids are older. That's LAUSD for you............
John Navratil| 2.26.13 @ 9:16AM
Albert Constantine Jr.,
May I propose the Dept. of Offense?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 9:41AM
JN;
That might make it difficult to distinguish from so many of the other governmental operations.
Drunken Sailor| 2.26.13 @ 10:07AM
I propose we change the name to
Council for the
Re-education,
Assimilation and
Progress.
Or CRAP, because that is what they fill our children's heads with.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 10:28AM
DS;
Your entry wins the prize for Governmental Improvement by Mindless Progressivism, or GIMP (which is the character from "Pulp Fiction" our leftist betters would like us all to resemble).
Drunken Sailor| 2.26.13 @ 11:31AM
UMM, does that mean I win the ball gag? Send it to someone like Purp, Arnie or Vtwin that could use it and don't give Tim any prize ideas.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 12:02PM
A catalogue of prizes in black leather, mesh and dog chains will be forwarded to you for your selection. I believe the ball gag is included therein.
Drunken Sailor| 2.26.13 @ 12:46PM
TLP,
Do you accept donations for the Friday contest? I may call dibs on the black leather.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:01PM
I don't have any room, at The Contest, for any Donated Prizes.
I've still got Boxes full of Purp's Butt Plugs, that vtwin puts in his mouth when Purp is done with them.
Thanks, anyway.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:03PM
Albert. I'm thinking that you could use the TAS people, and what they do, the next time you wanna explain to Occam what a "Fluffer" does.
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 3:30PM
I know I have a 13-year-old playground bully mentality, but hey--I've got nothing better to do than to come on here and talk dirty.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 5:11PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 4:11PM
I thought I did fairly well, given my PG-13 rating.
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 5:46PM
I don't suppose any of you should not I mean what was yesterday is tomorrow. Does this make since?
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 6:10PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
CJW| 2.26.13 @ 1:37PM
Why not combine the Energy and Education Dept and call it the Jimmy Carter Department. That would explain it.
Drunken Sailor| 2.26.13 @ 2:09PM
Imagine all the rabbits that would descend on D.C.
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 2:57PM
Why not go after the National Renewable Energy Lab out in CO? Whatever the budget for that nonsense may be, millions no doubt, it is too much.
CJW| 2.26.13 @ 3:40PM
Since we have to borrrow 40% of expenditures, why not propose to sequester 40% and use that as the basis for negotiations. Control the debate.
Let the sequester happen. It is only a minor reducion in the projected increases. Obama proposed the idea, and after it works he will take credit for it.
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 5:47PM
"all wabbits" as Fulmer Beard would say. Remember that cartoon character?
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 6:11PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
Kwan| 2.26.13 @ 2:14PM
in the spirit of Truth in Labeling laws...The Ministry of Intelligence Nullification. Our mission: To produce the useful idiots that will vote for Democrat Party candidates. Our method: History distortion and glorification of Marx, Lenin, Cuba, Obama, and Mao.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.26.13 @ 4:12PM
...to that end, perhaps The Department of Doctrinal Propagation...
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.26.13 @ 7:56AM
Both parties are in on the phony game of wanting an increase in government while claiming to want to cut government:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/re.....sequester/
Obama and Boehner both supported the sequester as an excuse for yet another unsustainable run-up of our nation’s credit limit – which exhausted its latest $2.1 trillion increase last December (after less than seventeen months).
“The debt ceiling deal in 2011 was agreed to by Republicans and Democrats, and regardless of who came up with the sequester, they all voted for it,” U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) said recently. “So, you can’t vote for something and, with a straight face, go blame the other guy for its existence in law.”
Exactly. Boehner and Obama’s game of “pin the tail on the sequester” ignores not only their shared support for the measure – but also their shared responsibility in overstating its impact.
More to the point it highlights the extent to which leaders of both parties in Washington, D.C. are abandoning taxpayers in order to curry favor with the legacy media and special interest establishment – both of which are dead set against any reduction in the size and scope of government.
Pecos Pete| 2.26.13 @ 8:10AM
Too little, too late. The big bang is coming.
It doesn't matter if there is a sequester or not. The day is approaching when the interest rate on the feds borrowing will be raised, and then raised again costing many billions more. Congress will have to divert money from all agencies to pay the interest on the national debt. Call it Interest Sequestration.
Congress, King O, the MSM and most of the public are stuck on stupid.
Gary B| 2.26.13 @ 12:21PM
Exactly right. Chairs on the Titanic... They're frantically trying to keep a lid on it all, but it's going to eventually blow. If it didn't affect millions of innocent citizens, it'd be fun to watch.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:16PM
King O is not "Stuck on Stupid". He knows exactly what he's doing.
He's the Domestic Enemy that our Founders foretold.
He's the BEAST that John of Patmos foretold.
He is the "I am Death, destroyer of Worlds" that the Bhagavad Gita foretold.
When will you people understand this?
It's as plain as the Nose on Penelope Cruz' face.
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 5:48PM
King O is a cheerio. Know what I'm sayin'?
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 6:11PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
Intelligent Design| 2.26.13 @ 8:18AM
State and local governments should sell the public schools to private education companies. This would ensure free enterprise competition, which invariably leads to reduced costs, freedom to choose, and higher quality. State and local taxes would be cut significantly (by as much as 50%) and education companies would be free to hire qualified non-union teachers. In addition to selling the K-12 schools, the states should sell their public colleges. The entire business of education would be revolutionized, our students would be free of dogmatic political curriculum, and the United States would be a stronger country. Future voters might even know about the issues and facts!
Private enterprise has given us the best housing, food, clothing, technology, cars, and medicine (despite interference from the federal government), so why not the best education too?
This plan should be combined with the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, the elimination of all federal funding of schools, and ending the federal student loan program, which is subsidizing outrageously high prices. The Internet can also replace much of the antiquated brick and mortar.
John Navratil| 2.26.13 @ 9:18AM
Intelligent Design,
Too sensible! It can never happen! It would require politicians to actually solve a problem rather than create one.
Bob Grant| 2.26.13 @ 9:40AM
John,
In reality, there's a little thing called The Internet that would take care of, at minimum, two-third's of what's required to educate a student, at any level.
With the increased sophistication of home schooling programs coupled with The Internet, the education needs of MOST students are already in place. Naturally, the teachers union is scarred shiatless and hanging on for dear life, but I believe it's time for them to get their long-delayed (to quote Nancy Pelosi) haircut.
It's time to seriously give parents an opportunity to "opt out" of the educational system entirely. And that includes their tax dollars!
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 11:14AM
I am in the process oc completing my second graduate level military education course. The first was given 1/3 distance learning and the second is entirely distance learning.
Bob Grant| 2.26.13 @ 11:33AM
And I'm sure got through high school quite nicely without the assistance of some controlling, ignorant, potato chip-eating "teacher".
Haircut time!!!
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:18PM
You spelled "Gays in the Military" wrong.
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 5:50PM
Shadda Faweenee Fatwa. That was Obozo's name when he checked into the Chicago bath houses. Chicago chicago that fabulous town come on over and let Rahm show you around.
around the circle or whatever
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 6:12PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
Intelligent Design| 2.26.13 @ 11:43AM
I think the sale of public schools will actually happen, starting in individual counties and states around the country. The leaders will be in states such as TX and FL, certainly not CA.
Gary B| 2.26.13 @ 12:23PM
Yes... like the hospital in the UK that's being turned around by a private contractor.
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 8:30AM
How much exactly is the DOE budget? Seems like other agencies, most of which are extra-constitutional in that Congress gave regulatory (legislative) power to executive branch Depts., more than likely have many millions, billions in spending (no budget for four years remember) not related to the purpose of the agency.
It is long past time to review these agencies, cut their budgets and get this government back to spending only what it has not every dollar it can borrow.
Von Mises Jr| 2.26.13 @ 10:51AM
We cannot know since we have not had a Budget in four years. The reason we don't is to hide the real travesty of the Education Establishment.
Remember the old Porkulus Bill, Al.
About $250B of the $787B went to States to fund the pensions for teachers and cops. So if the Dept of Ed used to cost $69B (how appropriate), then we have increased it by $83B per year over the last 3 years to $152B, and surprise, surprise: the freaking pensions are still going insolvent.
So with a 120% increase in funding, the public employee money laundering machine is still stealing and wasting more than we can afford to keep pension and benefit promises.
But then the public employees should have been more aware of who promised them and was it realistic, even if motive was beyond their pay grade. And these are supposed to be the creative thinkers?
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:23PM
CLOWARD and PIVEN.
Louis Jenkins| 2.26.13 @ 10:58AM
With all the fuss and muss about the DOE, let us get down to the point where the rubber hits the road. My youngest daughter spends a great deal of time on her homework, and that means dear old dad must help her out. Now I spend a approximately an hour each evening going over her math and time with other topics as well. How many of the parents are doing the same? As America grows dumber DOE is expanding and the little people, responsible people with children, are not maintaining the learning curve. It is the responsibility of the parent(s) to see their child has completed the requirements and yet, I dare say, a good many do not even try. The classrooms are a mess, with students acting out, speaking to one another, etc., and good discipline has gone the way of the condor. The answer is the Feds keep shovelling our money (taxes) into a bottomless pit, and there's no results. Seqestration? Cut the DOE to the bone. The great dis-contect. The only thing I see from the DOE is the establishment of policy, but down in the pit, they have no bearing on the outcome.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:22PM
It's around $85 Billion.
Coincidence?
mfeder| 2.26.13 @ 8:33AM
Jeffrey as always well written and it sounds as though you believe there is hope to get control of the monster that is the Federal government. I wish it were so but , alas, it is not. Sorry for the pessimism but the Federal Department of Education has produced the desired effects of graduating students with no concept of America's once unique system of governing. Our governing elite, with very few exceptions, are men and women cut from the whole cloth of the inside the beltway cocktail party society. They are east and west coast bluebloods who all attend the same schools and believe they are entitled to oversee the masses. Even Reagan who stopped the march of communism could barely slow the leviathan that is the Federal Government.
c. j. acworth| 2.26.13 @ 8:36AM
"Will House Republicans have the courage...."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
No.
Anthony| 2.26.13 @ 8:56AM
The Republican Party is determined to go the way of the Whig Party. Feckless, gutless and cowardly, these professonal pols do nothing but clear the tables for Obozo and the D party while the Titanic sinks.
These morons can't even make the case for billions of dollars of annual waste!! Doing less with $85B to the federal beheamoth is like peeing in the ocean to raise sea levels.
Sec. of Defense Hagel anyone??
The sooner this corrupt and rotted out ship sinks, the quicker a new one will set sail, with a crew minus leftists and RINOs.
Bob Grant| 2.26.13 @ 9:29AM
Another example of how George W Bush left his country, and party, in shambles. The expansion of a failed department.
Perhaps we should eliminate the Department of Homeland Security as well?
The name sounds like it originated out of '30's Germany or some George Orwell novel.
And really, just how useful could it possibly be when chuckleheads like Napolitano head it up?
So, the elimination of the Department of "Education", Energy, and Homeland Security would save us how much money?
loulou| 2.26.13 @ 9:45AM
We can thank Bush and Rove for the idiotic DHS.
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 10:18AM
Homeland security was a mistake when formed and many Conservatives opposed its creation at the time. Under this administration it is being used for social engineering and to reward friends and punish enemies not to make our nation safer.
Pecos Pete| 2.26.13 @ 11:27AM
Al: I wondered at the time why the word Homeland was chosen to describe the new department. I can just see a room full of 20 somethings debating the issue. It is easy to understand why they didn't settle on Department of Security. But why not something like Department of Terrorist Prevention.
Homeland has a strong taste of statism. Sort of big brother, ya know? Instead of just preventing terrorism the new department gets to protect all forms of security issues in the Homeland. Interesting. Super police? Can I say brown shirts without being banned?
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 12:04PM
Interestingly Pete, when the head of the Dept. was Gov of AZ their legislature passed a funding bill to place the national guard on the border. Napolitano vetoed it, yet was called tough on illegal migration. Go figure.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:28PM
Think: "The Affordable Healthcare Act".
When Liberals are picking the names?
You can be sure that, whatever they call it, will be the Opposite of that name.
lost| 2.26.13 @ 12:43PM
I always wonder why we needed DHS. I thought that the FBI, CIA and military were already there for that
J.C.Eaton| 2.26.13 @ 11:59AM
More damage has been done to the Conservative Cause by its' "friends" than by its' enemies. The two quislings you note rank high in that pantheon.And to think I actually wept with relieved joy when Bush defeated Gore.
delahaya| 2.26.13 @ 9:44AM
To state the obvious - the cuts needed for sequester are so small that none of the horror stories should come to pass unless bureaucrats deliberately, and with malice, cause them to come to pass for political purposes.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:31PM
I am taking Friday off because surely the world is going to end and I do not want to be at work when that happens. They let every working person take a 2% hit on January one and I do not recall them saying that with that increase our cars will not start, our houses will be cold, our children will starve and criminals will take over our house. Those making more than 250K took an even bigger hit and if they lived in Cali well they got hammered. If this tiny cut is going to cause a calamity well I think it is time to let the country cave in around our ears and we start over using the constitution as it was written and what was intended. Trash the whole federal government and get all new people in there.
delahaya| 2.26.13 @ 9:46AM
Its all a game anyway. Spending still increases the entire time, it just increases less than it would have without sequester. What a joke.
Bob Grant| 2.26.13 @ 9:55AM
And when the game of musical chairs comes to an abrupt end - i.e., the economic collapse of the country - the joke will be on whom?
Who will be left standing and who will be sitting comfortably in a chair?
At times I get the feeling all of this is nothing more than positioning for when the music stops!
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 12:50PM
It's a game we've already lost. The prize was the country.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 1:30PM
You spelled "Pizza" wrong.
fmm| 2.26.13 @ 3:09PM
You spelled your name wrong
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 3:32PM
TLP
Texas Latex Party
Look it up.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 5:12PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
pogybait| 2.26.13 @ 9:55AM
So I take it that by eliminating the Department of Education, Interpretive Star Dancing, Gender Studies, Social Egalitarianism 101, Climatic Change and Disaster Equitability Studies and Social Justice Awareness Programs will become a thing of the past?
Bob Grant| 2.26.13 @ 10:03AM
No. You'll just get a larger dose when watching Oprah, The Academy Awards, or an NFL game.
SUBVET| 2.26.13 @ 10:09AM
Bob......you forgot facebook
It's all about CONTROL
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 10:39AM
Education bureacrats are the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human beings I've ever known in my life.
Jim Adcox| 2.26.13 @ 11:36AM
Thank you, Bennett Marco, for remembering our dear friend Raymond Shaw.
markenoff| 2.26.13 @ 12:51PM
It's not that education bureacrats are hard to like.....they're impossible to like!
Who Knows?| 2.26.13 @ 12:04PM
I'm sorry, but I guess you didn't get the word---
"Abolish" has been deleted from the political lexicon.
Al Adab| 2.26.13 @ 1:03PM
I think abolish still resides in the Declaration of Independence. Might do us all good to read through it and consider what steps we might take in future days.
Given the mental condition of the president it might also be worthwhile to study the XXVth amendment section 4 as well.
Ronsch| 2.26.13 @ 1:13PM
The states individual Departments Of Education have been existing far too long from the Feral .gov's largesse.
That is why the screaming and the possible layoffs...because of all the US Department of Education's formulas and matching or outright funding of a state's educational system, the money will evaporate and it will be back on the state's to manage their schools budgets.
Think the administrators and school boards want to do that?
Marc Jeric| 2.26.13 @ 2:09PM
In order to save the USA from an eventual communist fate the Administration, following the Second Coming of Obama, must close out by complete elimination the following departments and agencies, leaving in their place just skeleton crews with the close-out tasks:
(1) Department of the Interior;
(2) Department of Agriculture;
(3) Department of Commerce;
(4) Department of Labor;
(5) Department of Health and Human Services;
(6) Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(7) Department of Transportation;
(8) Department of Energy;
(9) Department of Education;
(10) Environmental Protection Agency;
(11) Small Business Administration;
(12) Federal Housing Administration.
(cont.)
Marc Jeric| 2.26.13 @ 2:10PM
Then a thorough review must be performed to eliminate about 70-100 various boards, commissions, panels – such as NLRB, FCC, EEOC, etc. Obamacare nightmare and that financial monstrosity invented by Frank & Dodd must be repealed in their entirety, and all bureaucrats there fired without delay. These wastrels should join the ranks of the unemployed to compete with their protégées illegal aliens for part-time temporary gardening jobs at $8/hour.
Anthony| 2.26.13 @ 2:19PM
Cloture vote on Hagel 71/ 27.
RIP: GOP
spike59| 2.26.13 @ 4:52PM
eventually, there will be a Department of Departments
Oldefarte| 2.26.13 @ 5:00PM
Yes by all means, abolish the Department of Education, Oh and while you're at it, also abolish the departments of Energy, Interior, State, Agriculture, and Justice for good measure. %%%%OH HAPPY DAY, OH HAPPY DAY%%%%%
TLP.| 2.26.13 @ 5:52PM
Why? I don't konow.
TLP| 2.26.13 @ 6:12PM
That is not me. This is Anna K's Boy, soon to be removed, again.
I don't have a (.) after my name.
What does Rush always say?
"The Left will always tell you who they Fear."
Job| 2.26.13 @ 7:48PM
The question is: are there any House Republicans willing to stand up and say so?
no because of the No congressional district left behind politics.
They need report cards for federal departments like energy and education and consequences for failure; how bout a bill introduced for this.
Rhoetus| 2.26.13 @ 11:12PM
Why limit it to just "Education"? Energy, Homeland Security, Labor including the NLRB and most should be abolished. The real question should be: which Federal Agency should we keep and what duties should we allow them to perform?
Tina B| 2.27.13 @ 2:53PM
What kind of a**hole copies your name and puts a . after it and pretends to be someone they're not and makes inane unfunny postings for God only knows what reason. . . in place of someone who's always funny and never inane, and then does it again?
Hello-o-o, anybody home.
*.*| 2.28.13 @ 3:16PM
Who cares what Republicans want? The nation elected a Democratic president, and obstruction of legislation helps nobody. A house divided will not stand. Suck it up, and put in some word for a compromise, not belligerence.