Am I the only one who still remembers that President Carter suggested the creation of a Cabinet-level Department of Paperwork? I just did a Google search on "Carter + 'Department of Paperwork' " which brought zero results. Fine: it was just me, then.
But here you go: Laurence M. Vance has done quite a public service in this article. First of all, he's right in claiming that the Republican Party is not the party of limited government. That's no big deal, though it does bear repeating.
What he's done, though, that brought a smile to my face was present, in one place, a list of all cabinet-level departments of the executive branch (including those Republicans have sworn to eliminate); a list of all agencies in the Executive Office of the President; and a list of "Federal Agencies and Commissions." And these lists are good for opening the eyes.
You probably already suspected as much, but there is a lot going on.
For example, in the Executive Office of the President, there is both a Council on Economic Advisers and a National Economic Council, not to mention a Domestic Policy Council. There's both a National Security Council and a President's Foreign Policy Advisory Board. I wonder if there's a Department of Redundancy Department. And just what the hell is the USA Freedom Corps?
The list of Federal Agencies and Commissions shows much the same thing: for example, we have both an Institute of Museum and Library Sciences and a National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. I'm such they're responsible for such serious improvements over the card catalogue and the Dewey Decimal System.
We have -- and pay for -- both a National Labor Relations Board and a Federal Labor Relations Authority? Hmm.
We have -- and pay for -- both a National Institute of Mental Health and a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration?
I couldn't begin to tell you what the Defense Threat Reduction Agency even does, nor the National Institute of Justice, nor the White House Commission on Remembrance. Remembrance of what? Not the Nazi slaughter of European Jewry six decades ago -- that's dealt with, quite capably I'm sure, by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Carter's Department of Paperwork suggestion was a stupid idea. [And no, I am not just imagining the whole thing!] But at least it never came about.
The Warren Commission, too, has come in for a lot of criticism during my lifetime. But you know what? At least it no longer exists. It's gone.
That's more than can be said for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Posted by Craig Ceely at January 24, 2005 01:19 AM