Is the federal government too bloated?

I'd like to see EPA and the Food Safety and Inspection Service get more funding, and do we really need to have over a dozen separate intelligence agencies?

Yes. There is too much duplication in the government and much of the remaining work could be automated. Also, many programs should be replaced with direct payments rather than programs where large amounts of the money gets eaten up by bureaucracy and overhead.

What would we do with the money saved from ending the security theater department?

No! No! No!

No. the military and intelligence complexes are bloated, however. But not the civilian departments.

yes, yes and yes. Dear god, please consolidate. Back in the day in 1967 to be exact congress employed roughly 5700 employees. Today it is twice that. All of them entitled to ridiculous benefits and retirements that we, as taxpayers are paying for.

No, OP, it must get bigger and bigger and BIGGER.

R5 You are wrong, the entire government is bloated.

I think the government works pretty well, otherwise. Here are the changes I’d make:

Cut the military.

Police forces should be demilitarized.

We should eliminate private prisons; private military, private justice systems, and taxpayer-funded private schools.

Re-implement campaign finance laws. Implement a constitutional acceptable version of the law reversed by Citizen’s United.

Break up the largest companies.

Eliminate the death penalty.

Raise taxes on the wealthy and reinstate the dynasty tax.

R9, you make a number of good points.

I agree about private prisons. They are a horror and a complete dereliction of duty by the government, both state and Federal.

What private justice systems are you talking about?

If we cut the size of the military (as opposed to cutting expenditures on advanced weapons systems), what will happen to all the military personnel? The military is one of the few remaining sources of good jobs for working class Americans. Many people are just not college material, so sending them all to college is not the answer. I know it's ridiculous to run a vast military as a sort of jobs program, but in fact it works that way and works quite well.

Because health and public housing go together like grape jelly and tuna?

Reddit sucks now. The owner of DL has all but abandoned this place and the right wing shills that used to be kept at bay have infected it. "Is the federal government too bloated?" Really? This is the kind of "quality" content we can expect from DL these days? Oh how the mighty have fallen.

In answer to your question, OP: Please die a in a grease fire.

And here's some gay porn to cleanse the pallet.

Eisenhower said during his farewell speech to beware the military industrial complex. It happened. We ended up with Vietnam. The good post ww2 economy and government was gone for good. Soon, because of DJT wiping out taxes for the super rich through liberal loss loopholes, the government will have no incoming tax revenue to fund an outing to Taco Bell for a kindergarten class. Runaway capitalism has done this, outsourcing jobs, paying big refunds for giant companies who declare non existent loss, and foreign ownership of businesses in this country paying low wages with no benefits, will finally burst the bubble.