Homeland Security

I'm on a roll, and I can't get done what I need to do yet, so I'll play one more hand...

Department of Homeland Security is intended to be the domestic answer to what the Department of Defense abroad. Neither is tasked solely and exclusively inside or outside the US border, but one is primarily a military department (but not exclusively) while the other is primarily a civilian department (but not exclusively).

It is the third largest Cabinet department, behind DoD and the VA, with a budget of $43 billion and more than 200,000 employees. It is tasked with border security, immigration, customs enforcement and regulation, and disaster preparation and response. I'm not 100% sure that this Department is the "failure" that ED and EPA are... but in the eight years that the DHS has existed, I can't say I've seen a whole lot accomplished. The borders are not secure, the illegal immigrant issue is bigger than ever, there are routine incidents of incursions across our borders by Mexican drug lords to have gun-fights in our towns and cities (by the way, the LAST time that happened with any regularity, Gen. "Blackjack" Pershing took an entire infantry corps south across the border to chase Poncho Villa down and finish him off), and I have seen no conclusive proof that this nation is any better prepared for another Hurricane Katrina, 1906 San Fransisco earthquake or 9-11-01 than it was before November of 2002. I was NOT impressed by the DHS "suggestion" that the best preparation for a terrorist attack that a private citizen could take was to buy sheet plastic and duct tape and start filling containers with tap water... so anyone that uses that as a "defense" of DHS had better be ready to argue.

In my opinion, this Department is either grossly under-funded, or it is completely redundant and needs to be done away with entirely. However, I'm not in favor of throwing good money away, so simply increasing DHS budgets isn't the answer, either. I'd LOVE to see President Ryan appoint a Secretary of DHS that can give the nation a clear, concise statement as to what he/she intends to do to achieve the goals that the DHS is intended to meet... because no one has done that yet.