In a previous article I suggested that we downsize the government, just as Corporate America streamlined their operations. The Gulf oil spill demonstrates to me that the government is unable to react quickly on unplanned disasters and international situations. While they can move very swiftly on implementing their planned legislation, bullying and bribing our elected representatives into ramrodding the legislation through, they are not able to respond to real world emergencies effectively and in a timely manner.

When I look at the vast size of government and the number of employees (2,015,000 as of February 2010), I am dumbfounded. Unemployment in the private sector is 9.7 percent with some states experiencing close to 14 percent. With so many unemployed, how can we afford to pay for the expansion of a highly ineffective and expensive government? We cannot, which is why the deficit is ballooning to record levels (over $13 trillion). We all know that government needs to be downsized, but where do we start? I selected three areas based on their abysmal performance.The first place I choose to cut is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While everyone is blaming BP for failing to contain the Gulf oil spill, the truth is that it is a shared responsibility. On day three or four of the spill, Governor Jindal of Louisiana wanted to build near shore sand berms to protect the state's beaches and marshes. The EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers required an environmental study to determine the impact of the sand berms on the environment, plants and animals. Common sense tells us that taking sand from the bottom of the sea to build barriers to stop the oil has to be less dangerous to the environment than allowing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to make landfall, destroying the eco-structure and killing the birds, fish, shrimp and plant life. Yet the EPA took more than 50 days to grant permission to build the berms. By the time the approval came in, the oil had devastated the coastline.When the President could not push his Cap and Trade legislation through, the EPA decided to declare that carbon dioxide to be a danger to public health and the environment. This means our breathing can be regulated! We breathe in oxygen and we exhale carbon dioxide. Plants on the other hand inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. This creates a great ecosphere for coexistence. Rather than declaring CO2 a dangerous substance, they should announce that it is necessary to support life on earth.The EPA did a fine job of implementing clean air and water standards that improved our quality of life in the 19780's and 1980's, closed our factories and sent our jobs overseas. In doing so, pollution in Asia increased dramatically. China suffers so badly from pollution generated by the factories that they had to shut down their factories for two months so they could hold the Olympic Games (http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Olympics:-factories-and-mines-shut-down-to-reduce-smog-12830.html). Our overregulation not only cost us jobs, but it endangered Mother Earth by moving the pollution to countries with little concern for the environment or the effects of contamination on their population.I believe it is time to entirely dismantle the EPA, then build a new nimbler, business oriented organization. This organization would set achievable guidelines for environmental management. It would work with industry to find ways to realize our goals while keeping our factories open and our jobs in the United States. We could also encourage businesses to repatriate factories to the good old

U.S.A. using environmentally friendly processes. This approach would create jobs and ensure we have clean air and water.My next target is the Department of Energy (DOE) and the $26 billion it consumes every year. President Carter founded this department in 1977 to end our dependence on foreign oil. After 33 years, it is time to admit that they failed! We currently import 9.2 million barrels of crude oil every day. The DOE is also implicated in the BP oil spill. BP received permission from the State of Louisiana to drill in 500 feet of water. The DOE would not permit this, only approving drilling at the 5,000-foot level. BP was forced to drill where no human can safely work and no disaster can be mitigated in a timely manner. It is time to shut down the DOE. Move the Nuclear Energy component over to the Defense Department. Then lets start from scratch with a new authority that encourages national oil and gas extraction and can spearhead the development of green energy alternatives to replace petroleum based energy over the next twenty to forty years.My next target is the Department of Education (ED) again created by Jimmy Carter by spinning it out of another organization. While ED only has 5,000 employees they have a budget just short of $70 billion. What do we get for this investment? Young adults who cannot read, cannot compose a simple essay and have little or no chance of obtaining a well paying job. These failures cannot be blamed solely on the federal government. The states have also failed to properly education our children.As we approach the elections we should ensure that our representatives understand the need for smaller more efficient government. It is time to sunset useless laws, cut staff, consolidate departments and yes, create a nimble government that can respond quickly to the needs of the citizens.© 2010 Gordon Smith - All rights Reserved.