Homeland Scrutiny is one of those horribly expensive Federal ideas that went terribly wrong from the start, and now requires untold billions to try and fix the original flaws. Of course once the new Administration takes over the reform and reset buttons will get pushed together and we will be off to even more expensive fixes.
Much of the Federal Government functions this way which is why we really do need someone to start chopping. The Department of Education is another good candidate. Imagine spending that money on actual school buildings and textbooks instead of lining the pockets of the National Teachers Unions.
And so forth, and so on.
Amazingly, Homeland Security consisted of no new government programs at the time it was created-- only a reorganization of existing ones. How it could get so far out of hand, I have no idea.
As far as consolidating/reorganizing cabinets...
Commerce and Labor are two sides of the same coin. Their operations should probably be better placed together so that we have less chance of contradicting ourselves.
Most of Energy's duties can be covered under the Interior Dept., as can most of Transportation and Agriculture except for the food-stamp program. Yes, it'd make this department much bigger, but the tasks of the Interior Department have been divided up quite heavily as it is.
Same with Veterans Affairs and Defense. The military should be responsible for its own veterans.
Place NASA, NOAA, NIST, the CDC and the like into a Department of the Sciences. It would be the only "new" cabinet position I would create; most of them are under other cabinet departments as it is but are mostly out of place. It only makes sense to have as much of the scientific research we are doing to be put under one umbrella instead of the numerous ones we have now.
Consolidate HHS's remaining operations, insert the Food Stamp and welfare programs, and establish them as the Department of Entitlements. Then people would truly see how much of our federal budget goes to their actions-- it would be pretty close to half the entire budget.
Abolish HUD and Education. Move the Pell grants to Department of Entitlements.
So, we'll then have (in preferred order): State, Treasury, Justice, Defense and Military Affairs, Homeland Security, Interior, Commerce, Sciences, and Entitlements.
