For reasons probably rooted in the sheer complexity of modern society, to which our governmental structure may not be well adapted, we have experienced in recent years a series of policy fiascoes, many of which seem to reflect the inability to plan ahead.

Hurricane Katrina is one example, although the entire blame cannot be put on the federal agencies because the Louisiana state and local governments did a horrible job; and part of the reason was that some people just didn’t listen when told to leave the area until after the hurricane hit.

Robert Walker has written about the solution. Mr. Walker was the chairman of the House Science Committee and chief deputy for the Gingrich Republican majority in 1995-1996, where he reorganized many House operations in behalf of efficiency.

Walker was quoted saying in TCSDaily …

Take the functions of the federal executive branch and turn them all into five ‘super departments.’ That is, take the existing unwieldy 15 Cabinet departments and independent agencies and collapse them into a user-friendly quintet:

§ National Security – including Defense, State, the CIA.

§ Economy & Trade – including Treasury, Commerce, Special Trade Representative.

§ Justice, Border & Homeland Security.

§ Human Resources & Transportation.

The “Walker Plan” would make the federal government more organized and would be able to face the changes required during the course of changing history. The Cabinet would be more manageable. He advised that some are easy choices, like the Department of Education and Labor would fall under the Human Resources agency; yet for others, like the presently independent National Science Foundation could be “trickier” to reorganize. “If these five Super Secretaries were presumed each to have the ear of the president it would be easier to force new ideas and priorities down into their agencies.

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is not an important entity of the executive branch of government, as far as running the government is concerned; yet spends almost $34 billion a year and the cost of its regulations is much more than that. HUD is looted by Congressional earmarkers, lobbyers and “mau-mauers.” Outside groups run HUD rather than its departmental chief.

Therefore, Mr. Walker relates, the best solution is to

bring HUD issues into a serious framework, so that powerful eyes can watch over its expenditures, managing programs for overall government goals.

Each of the Super Secretaries would report to the President because they are part of the Cabinet. This whole lesson becomes clear in a book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Teams of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. On the book cover there is a picture of President Lincoln with seven advisers – no more.

Lincoln ran the executive branch with just four members of his Cabinet – State, Treasury, War, and Attorney General. What makes that interesting is that those four people, Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates were rivals of the 1860 Republican presidential nomination. Lincoln latter made replacements and then added three other departments – Post Office, Interior, and Navy.

Jimmy Carter campaigned under the pretense of reorganization when campaigning for presidency and he called for a reorganization of Washington, DC – his idea was to shrink 1900 different federal entities down to just 200. But Congress (his own party was the majority) blocked him when he tried to initiate that which he made as a campaign promise. But he did create two new Cabinet departments: Energy and Education. The situation remained the same as Big Government began getting bigger.

Today, while President Bush did fix the problem of certain key agencies not knowing what each other were doing, which was part of the problem concerning 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security (three years old) already has 88 committees and subcommittees that are used to operate one department. President Bush has lost his purpose of dealing with Big Government and its problems. In fact, he has added to Big Government – for example, the pipe dream of the North American Union, a waste of taxpayer funding and dangerous to the future of America as a nation.

And how can all of this be done?

This editorial is for stimulating someone to come up with good ideas based upon what is written here – not a finger-pointing exercise at any political party, the point is to solve the problem of Big Government by making it more manageable and more efficient no matter who is in office, and since President Bush promised it back in 2000 – he needs to start yesterday.

Mr. Walker is an idea man, but his plan could be used to make government more efficient – and less costly. The President (whoever) could just empower five Cabinet Secretaries to be his “Super Secretaries.” It would be something that other countries have done in the process of reconsolidation. There would be unhappiness within the departmental chiefdom, for sure; but far better than the situation is today. And if the federal government executives are not doing their job, the President needs to look them in the face and tell them they are no longer needed.

Some may argue that the Katrina affair was because FEMA fell under the DHS and Michael Brown didn’t have enough “clout.” That problem was because Brown wasn’t any good for the job.

So the answer to the solution is find better people, give them the authority to do their job, but ensure they realize that responsibility means being responsible for failures. The government would operate more efficiently and less costly and the American people would once again have trust in their government. One beneficial thing above all others is this: once the White House begins this restructure, Congress will be forced to get rid of their hundreds of committees and subcommittees, which each jealously guard because of budget and protocol. But that would be a sigh of relief to Americans and a better day for the government’s operation, as well as its overspending nature. And that is the beauty of the Walker Plan – streamline the Executive Branch, which would force the Legislative Branch to do so as well – something that hasn’t happened since 1861.

On Fox News Sunday, March 5^th edition, Bill Kristol had this to day:

I think it’s become in people’s minds an emblem of an administration that just isn’t as serious about the competent execution of the functions of government as it should be. And I’m struck talking to conservatives and Republicans. They agree with the President on basic political philosophy. They agree with his basic policy agenda. But they’re worried that they just don’t seem to be able to execute as well as they should.

Whether we agree or disagree with Mr. Kristol or not, the polls clearly show that the American people share these concerns and the past performance of government departments with acronyms like FEMA, CFIUS, DOE, and so on are likely to be a major topic in election days that are to come. And whatever political party the candidate belongs to or even if independent, the question still remains – will that party keep their promises made during the campaign for presidency. Bush might start with firing those who can’t cut the mustard. The old saying “too many cooks spoil the soup” apply here. As, Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff in Colin Powell’s State Department said:

If something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence.

It’s the system, stupid.

Remember this on November 7^th.