Recipe for Disaster

Many predicted that, post 9-11, when President George W. birthed the Department of Homeland Security, it would quickly become just another bloated federal bureaucracy. Any enhancements in security would be marginal, at best, and, most likely, easily reproducible by existing organisms of the federal and state governments. No, Bush said he'd deliver security through a "budget neutral" reorganization of existing departments, and that Homeland Security would just be the icing on our already tasty marble cake of security.

DHS now operates with a budget in the billions (over 40 billion requested this year), which ain't exactly neutral. That's not enough money though, you have to go to the CAGW website and check our the earmarks for DHS. Therein hides another 2.5 billion or more dollars worth of delicious, security flavored frosting.

The Department of Homeland Security took charge of FEMA and what happened? Nothing much. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA's response was, to be polite, inadequate. The slow response time was placed at the feet of DHS--see the WaPo December 05 article below and the link in that story to the actual report from Homeland Security's Inspector General . For more information on DHS wastefulness, and scariness:
USA Today 12-27-04
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas
Washington Post 12-05
NY Times William Safire
Policing Porn not in the job description
DHS Official Suspended in Sex Case

This isn't to deride, the men and women who stood up and focused their careers towards our Nation's security by joining DHS. This is simply to point out that, like any bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security, by it's very nature, would only make things slower and more expensive. A new layer of bureaucracy, which is exactly the opposite of what Bush said he would deliver, can do nothing but slow things down. The DHS was supposed to be the icing on the cake, instead we got another layer; but who wants cake without frosting?


The Iguana Monologues