A political talk-show guy asked a good question:  When are we going to reduce the size of the federal government?   Here's a good answer:   1) When it won't put us into a recession to do it.  To me that means "not in early 2013."   And 2) when we are ready to reduce the military and security budget by the same proportion as the rest of it.   Not till then.  


Here's one exception.  The Army Corps of Engineers has made so many mistakes in its civil (vs. military) engineering projects, I'd be happy to dissolve it later this afternoon.  Hurricane Katrina, you should know, did not flood New Orleans in September, 2005.  The hurricane waters did not overtop the levees.  Some sections of the levees failed because the Corps had not built them properly.  Our response?  We gave the Corps another 14 Billion to rebuild.  Now that kind of government spending, on an agency proven to screw things up in various places and various ways, I will be happy to cut.  Find new engineers and start fresh.  Send the Corps back to its original mission of supporting the Army.