Cut HHS budget, in total.

Vic Biorseth, Wednesday, April 27, 2011
http://www.Thinking-Catholic-Strategic-Center.com

(This article, and others like it, was written as part of the Shut Down Unneeded Bureaucracy effort to cut spending.)

Regarding the US Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) –
Health and Human Services is not listed under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, or anywhere else for that matter, so why is the US government concerning itself with such things? Did Americans not have any good health, and were its people not doing well, before we had HHS? Do Americans need a huge bureaucracy of the US government to continue to be healthy and find the services they need among themselves? How are citizen health and any so-called Human Services the proper business of the federal government? Was citizen health better or worse, before and after HHS was born and grew into the monster that it is? I submit that the American federal government has done more to harm citizen health than to improve it, and sought to turn large numbers of independent free-thinkers into dependent, unthinking sheep, convinced that they cannot take care of themselves, and that only government can take care of their needs, thus becoming more ready for government herding.

First, let’s take a brief look at the original purpose, make-up and history of HHS. This behemoth bureaucracy began life as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) after long political contention, began in 1923 under the Harding administration and finally coming into being in 1953 under the Eisenhower administration. It was the only cabinet-level department created by Presidential authority, under which a President could create a new department so long as neither house of Congress passed a legislative veto. Theoretically, today, the President no longer has any such power, and similarly, Congress has no such veto power. Of course, the current administration (Obama) and his Party have amply demonstrated how they don’t pay much attention to any existing constraints of law.

A major reorganization occurred in 1979 under the administration of Jiminy Carter, a typically Marxist – Redistributionist Democrat. The name was changed from HEW to HHS; Education was spun off into its own separate huge bureaucracy, and the old term Welfare was changed to Human Services, because it had a better ring in political speeches. Later (in 1995,) Social Security would be similarly be spun off into its own separate bureaucracy.

Like so many other federal bureaucracies, HHS has its own Office of Inspector General (OIS) which has its own special investigative police force. There is a repeated pattern here; you will find the same thing in federal bureaucracy after federal bureaucracy. OIS agents have the same training and authority of other federal agents, such as FBI, ATF, DEA, Secret Service, etc. OIS agents primarily investigate so-called White Collar Crimes, primarily dealing with Medicare and Medicaid fraud, which are touted to be dominated by organized crime. It might be noted that if such things as Medicare and Medicaid had not been invented by the federal government, fraud against them would not exist, and there would be no need for any such extra special police force.

In June of 2010, as part of the fraudulent, Obamunist American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, HHS created its $50 billion Strengthening Communities Fund, in order to pay off unions and other Democrat supporters who were or pretended to be “non-profit” organizations, especially those involved in community organizing, and to state, local and tribal governments, so long as they were Democrat. They were called “Capacity Builders”. Bottom line: there was no recovery, and nothing was invested, or reinvested, in anything positive for America. Obama was simply following Carter in vigorously sustaining the Democrat goal to “Spend! Spend! Spend!” and to use that spending to as much political advantage as possible.

HHS Organization:

1. Office of the Secretary (OS)
2. Immediate Office of the Secretary (IOS)
3. Office of the Deputy Secretary (DS)
4. Assistant Secretary for Administration (ASA)
1. Office of Human Resources (OHR)
2. Program Support Center (PSC)
5. Assistant Secretary for Legislation (ASL)
6. Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
7. Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
1. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
1. Project BioShield
2. Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE)
8. Assistant Secretary for Finance and Resources (ASFR)
9. Departmental Appeals Board (DAB)
10. Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
11. Office of Global Health Affairs (OGHA)
12. Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA)
13. Office of the Secretary’s Regional Directors
14. Office of the General Counsel (OGC)
15. Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
16. Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA)
17. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)
18. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH)
1. Public Health Service (PHS)
1. Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS)
2. Office of the Surgeon General
1. US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS)
19. Office on Disability (OD)
20. Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI)

HHS Operating Divisions

1. Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
2. Administration on Aging (AoA)
3. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
4. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
6. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) (Renamed; formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration)
7. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
8. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
9. Indian Health Services (HIS)
10. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
11. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

HHS Budget:

In 2008, HHS outlays were $698 billion; in 2009 they were $816 billion, an increase of $110 billion. In 2010, they were $879 billion, an increase of another $63 billion, that we know of. In 2011, we simply don’t know, because there is no budget. We do know that, at least in 2010, Medicare alone took 53% of the total, Medicaid took another 33%, leaving a mere 15% for all the other items listed above.

What happens to American food, health, etc. when we eliminate FDA, CDC, etc.?

Did we not have food before we had the FDA? CDC is a scientific joke. It perpetrated, and still maintains, the old HIV=AIDS=Death Hoax, with no empirical evidence behind it, and they somehow manage to keep a straight face while doing it.

The bottom line is this: Producers, shippers, retailers, etc., of food (or anything else) know full well that killing or injuring their customers is very bad for business. This is not rocket science. There is no function that the federal government does, other than military, that the private sector cannot do better, cheaper and more efficiently and effectively.

What happens when we cut these entitlements?

America is now between a rock and hard spot. The Obamunists are purposely spending, borrowing and printing America into economic destruction, and current Republican leadership is doing nothing to stop them. We have no money. We cannot keep spending like this. “Entitlement” mentality has got to be reversed; obviously, if funding is cut off immediately that could be economically catastrophic for many citizens who are truly in need of these government handouts. Many more have grown addicted to them, by government plan. That’s what the Democrats want.

Eliminating or privatizing or localizing “entitlement” benefit programs cannot be done in a one-shot, overnight deal without causing extreme pain to millions. But we do have a stop-gap possibility to continue to fully fund all of these programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, on into the foreseeable future, if we can Fast-Track the Fair Tax. If you have studied the FairTax at all then you know that it has the capability of fully funding every single thing government spends money on, including even Social Security, and taking it out of the red and into the black. This would give us time to work on easing America out of this entitlement pickle the Marxocrats have put us in. And, it would immediately turn the whole economy around.

Unfortunately, the only way we are going to Fast-Track the Fair Tax is after we have a conservative House, a conservative Senate and a conservative President. Then, so long as Tea Party or Tea Party – like representatives outnumber the RINO Republicans, we will be able to get something meaningful done in Washington.

The danger is that it will take until after the 2012 elections for this to even be possible, and at the rate the Obamunist regime is spending, that may be too late for America, and for the world. We may well descend into absolute anarchy by that time, when the situation begins to look like the end days of the Weimar Republic. House Speaker John Boehner and the rest of the current Republican “leadership” will stand around with their thumbs up their butts and allow it to happen.

The End of Politics As Usual.

We have got to rid ourselves of career, professional politicians, or they will be the death of America. We have got to get good Constitutional candidates up to run against current Republican old hats, and get dedicated, concerned, engaged citizens up there, instead of mere experienced politicos who have learned to game the system.

The path to doing that is to hit them where it truly hurts, which is to say, to eliminate the 70,000 + page tax code, by Fast-Tracking the Fair Tax. The existing maze of the tax code is the bread and butter of the old time, long-term Washington politician. That’s where their real money comes from, and money is power. They know how to get it, and they know how to spread it around, for their own benefit.

Money is power, and professional politicians know it. The Fair Tax will replace the entire tax code, meaning it will take away all the hidden power of all the old time politicians, which is the real power of office. It would mean the doom of Business As Usual in Washington. While it would be foolish to assume it would end all corruption, it most certainly would end a long political gravy train, and end most Washington corruption. You may depend on this: the old time politicians will fight Fair Tax tooth and tong, with everything they’ve got, with their dieing breath, and that should tell you all you need to know about whether to get behind it or not.

I will tell you this: I live in John Boehner’s district, and he is most certainly not my Representative. He is not doing what we expressly elected him to do. If any Constitutionalist candidate opposes him, I will vote for that candidate, and throw my support behind him. Or her. I have had it up to here with Boehner.

We have got to increase the majority in the House, take the Senate, take the White House, and get rid of the remaining old time Republicans.

Pray that the American Republic will survive until we do.

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Date: Thu Apr 28 11:01:41 2011
From: Jerome
Email:
Location:
Comment:

Victor-

Unfortunately there is little hope for replacing Boehner with any new candidate in the primary. He is too established. This is his 11th term in office. Total support of the NRP. Huge war chest. Unmatched advertising capabilities between now and then. And if he goes, who becomes speaker?

We are going to have to live with him.

Date: Thu Apr 28 12:01:09 2011
From: Vic Biorseth
Comment:

Jerome:

I respectfully disagree. First, primary elections are traditionally low turn-out elections as compared to general elections. The ones who will go to the polls are the ones who are stirred up about something, and believe me, constitutionalists in this district are stirred up against Boehner and the sitting Republican old-guard House leadership. Second, the Dems who show up for the primary will vote the Dem ticket, not the GOP ticket.

The way I feel, and the way everyone I talk to feels, it won’t matter how much money Boehner spends or how much he is promoted by the RNC. If any decent candidate runs against Boehner, Boehner will be in trouble. It’s time to put him and his old fart Republican buddies out to pasture.

I don’t know how selecting a new Speaker works, but I think they vote internally on it, and I would hope someone like Michelle Bachman might win it. I'm almost ready to say that anyone would be better than Boehner as Speaker.

Regards,

Vic

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