As a candidate, you often made reference to draining the swamp. As laudable as this goal may be, the “swamp” exists because the federal government has become so gigantic, so invasive, and so all-encompassing that anyone who wishes to get anything done in this country must necessarily apply to Washington at some point — either for help or permission. Draining the swamp, therefore, isn’t enough: You must eliminate it completely. Draining it will only create a vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum.

The obvious first step is to take a chainsaw to entire branches of government that should never have been allowed to come into being. Legally, one could compare each bureaucracy with the Constitution to see if it is mentioned. If not, eliminate it. For starters, this would include:

  • Amtrak
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
  • Department of Agriculture
  • Department of Education
  • Department of Energy
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Department of Transportation
  • Drug Enforcement Administration
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Export-Import Bank
  • Federal Communications Commission
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency
  • Federal Reserve (which is illegal)
  • Food and Drug Administration
  • Internal Revenue Service (which was never legally constituted)
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • National Security Agency
  • Small Business Administration
  • Transportation Security Administration

In fact, most of the agencies listed at federalregister.gov/agencies could and should be eliminated: We need terminations, not reductions.

The obvious second step is to drastically cut back on remaining bureaucracies, such as:

  • Disarming the Federal Bureau of Investigation and all other federal agencies that are not military.
  • Eliminating the power of agencies and bureaucracies to create laws, rules, and regulations without Congress.
  • Closing virtually all overseas military and other bases and bringing our troops home.
  • Eliminate virtually all forms of foreign aid.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss this.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA