Posted By LambChop
From FOX News:
What did we learn from the 16-day government shutdown? The most salient point is that perhaps as much as 80% of the government is “non essential.” We have WHOLE agencies that are awash with waste, fraud and abuse that lack accountability and oversight. They have outlived their usefulness and most likely violated the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
But what of agencies that are part of law enforcement? We know the Department of Homeland Security is too large and unwieldy and should be disbanded. We have the FBI, Border Patrol, DEA, ATF, Federal Marshall Service, DOJ, Bureau of Prisons, Customs Dept., Treasury Dept., ICE and Coast Guard that are all involved in law enforcement. Spooks like CIA & NSA have field ops.
The question is how many agencies and how many arms-wielding government officials do we really need? And who holds them accountable? We’ve seen in the power craving Obama administration the NSA and IRS have gone totally off the reservation by creating policy, targeting citizens and completely ignoring individual rights guaranteed on the U.S. Constitution. Their unfettered access to data and ability to select and punitively attack Americans with no presumption of innocence is jarring to say the least.
Folks balked at last year’s Department of Homeland Security bid for up to 1.2 billion rounds of ammunition – not realizing that this future purchase actually represented a slight decline in ammo purchases by the U.S. government.
The egregious incident that recently fueled outrage of government overreach and heavy -handed tactics happened a month ago in Alaska. Armed state/federal descended on and attacked Chicken, Alaska supposedly looking for Clean Water Act violations. No, this is not a parody. The participants in the raid were actually dressed in full body armor. What agency led the charge? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
As Fox news reported, more than FORTY federal agencies have armed divisions. 24 federal agencies employ more than 250 full-time armed officers with arrest authority; another 16 agencies have less than 250 officers. Add an additional 33 offices including inspector general, the Postal Service and Government Printing Office have armed personnel. These agencies employ about 120,000 full-time officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests, according to a June ,2012 DOJ report.
So is it necessary for the EPA, the Library of Congress, NOAA, the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Institute of Health, the National Oceanic and the Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Park Service to have armed officers who can arrest you? No it is not.
Comments