{"id":134392,"date":"2017-08-23T09:29:57","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T15:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/23\/how-to-kill-a-federal-agency.html"},"modified":"2017-08-23T11:07:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T17:07:35","slug":"how-to-kill-a-federal-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/23\/how-to-kill-a-federal-agency.html","title":{"rendered":"How to kill a federal agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re Donald Trump and you straight-out say you want to get eliminate the the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the reaction, even among many Republicans, will be outrage. Further, as a federal department, it would require congressional approval, and that’s hard.<\/i><\/p>\n

Worry not. You can kill it off just as easily by …<\/p>\n

… appointing a HUD Secretary who knows nothing about the subject, still seems to know nothing about the subject, and believes that housing problems amongs the impoverished can be solved through the power of positive thinking.
\n… leaving many of the other appointed positions vacant, so that there’s no program guidance and nobody to answer questions from within the ranks …
\n… except for the positions you fill with right-wing crackpots who, similarly, know nothing about housing or urban development, but who were loyal supporters in the campaign.
\n… let various programs languish so that the people who want to make a difference leave and the only people who feel motivated to stay are the clock-watchers who will reinforce the narrative about lazy government employees that you want people to have.
\n… cut the budget by double-digit percentages, which budget cuts your HUD Secretary will wave aside as nothing to worry about because there will be pie, in the sky, by and by.<\/p>\n

Keep it up for a few years and, heck, maybe Congress will offer to put the place out of its misery. And if that means more homelessnes, more people out on the streets, more economic insecurity … well, most of those folk are your base voters anyway, so who cares?<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nIs Anybody Home at Ben Carson\u2019s HUD?<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re Donald Trump and you straight-out say you want to get eliminate the the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the reaction, even among many Republicans, will be outrage. Further, as a federal department, it would require congressional approval, and that’s hard. Worry not. You can kill it off just as easily by … … Continue reading “How to kill a federal agency”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,528,376,1071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-economic-justice","category-taxing-spending","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/unnamed-6-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132432,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/23\/grab-em-by-the-policy.html","url_meta":{"origin":134392,"position":0},"title":""Grab 'em by the policy"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Dec-16 7:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, it's probably not a good thing that the Trump transition team has requested a list of positions at the State Department that were involved in gender equality, women's issues, and other activities related to female humans that weren't about the joys of groping hot models. Trump team asked State\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135805,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/01\/11\/the-racist-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":134392,"position":1},"title":"The Racist President","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jan-18 8:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Between his \"Haitians = AIDS\" and \"Africans live in huts\" comments in December, and his comments today about how all those Haitian, El Salvadoran, and African immigrants come from \"shithole nations\" and how the US should be instead importing more immigrants from Norway ... and, honestly, given his whole grotesque\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Trump-isolated.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136816,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/22\/the-trump-gilded-age-government-restructuring-plan.html","url_meta":{"origin":134392,"position":2},"title":"The Trump “Gilded Age” Government Restructuring Plan","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Jun-18 10:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have no doubt that there are any number of \"Hey, we can cut down on government oversight and regulation of big business\" consolidations going on here in the name of \"efficiency\". Also any number of \"If we consolidate this stuff, then we can more easily cut its budget!\" ploys.But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/The_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/The_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/The_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137744,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/04\/and-yet-another-horrible-federal-secretary-nominee-shambles-forward.html","url_meta":{"origin":134392,"position":3},"title":"And yet another horrible federal secretary nominee shambles forward","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Feb-19 7:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Our likely next Secretary of the Interior? \"A veteran lobbyist who has helped orchestrate the push to expand oil and gas drilling at the Interior Department.\" Because of course he is. Because of course that's who Trump would nominate. Because Trump. washingtonpost Original Post","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132620,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/executive-orders-are-patriotic-again.html","url_meta":{"origin":134392,"position":4},"title":"Executive Orders are Patriotic Again!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Jan-17 1:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And on this morning's hit parade:1. Ditching the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- Which will have some Trump supporters of a business ilk grinding their teeth, and some Trump opponents who hated the TPP grinding theirs. This was one where there was no easy answer, but net-net I'm just as glad to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132690,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/29\/its-like-the-marx-bros-only-with-peoples-lives-at-stake.html","url_meta":{"origin":134392,"position":5},"title":"It's like the Marx Bros., only with people's lives at stake","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 29-Jan-17 5:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's astonishing watching how badly the immigration\/refugee ban was handled. Remember, one of Trump's big selling points was that he was a fabulously successful business owner, and he'd bring those executive skills into the White House.Except that apparently Trump is one of those executives used to sending sweeping memos off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134395,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134392\/revisions\/134395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}