>The Cato Institute: Abolish the Department of Homeland Security
Ben Franklin said, “Those who give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither.”
A decade after 9/11, it’s time we got our civil liberties back. We should start by abolishing the TSA and DHS, and end the increasingly Orwellian assaults on individual liberty and the Constitution by Secretary Janet Napolitano and the Obama Administration. In memory of this anniversary of 9/11, let’s reaffirm our patriotism by taking back our rights.
Abolish the Department of Homeland Security
by David Rittgers
David Rittgers is a legal policy analyst with the Cato Institute.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an umbrella organization that would oversee 22 preexisting federal agencies. The idea was to improve the coordination of the federal government’s counterterrorism effort, but the result has been an ever-expanding bureaucracy.
DHS has too many subdivisions in too many disparate fields to operate effectively. Agencies with responsibilities for counterfeiting investigations, border security, disaster preparedness, federal law enforcement training, biological warfare defense, and computer incident response find themselves under the same cabinet official. This arrangement has not enhanced the government’s competence. Americans are not safer because the head of DHS is simultaneously responsible for airport security and governmental efforts to counter potential flu epidemics.
National defense is a key governmental responsibility, but focusing too many resources on trying to defend every potential terrorist target is a recipe for wasteful spending. Our limited resources are better spent on investigating and arresting aspiring terrorists. DHS responsibilities for aviation security, domestic surveillance, and port security have made it too easy for politicians to disguise pork barrel spending in red, white, and blue. Politicians want to bring money home to their districts, and as a result, DHS appropriations too often differ from what ought to be DHS priorities.