ARNOLD KLING
February 10, 2012
Rent Control
February 10, 2012
Wealth and the Output Gap
February 9, 2012
Another Frustrating Education Study
February 9, 2012
Timothy Taylor's Instant Economist
February 8, 2012
Notes from the Welch-Goldberg Show
BRYAN CAPLAN
February 10, 2012
Ozimek on the Sheepskin Effect
February 9, 2012
The Career Consequences of Failing versus Forgetting
February 9, 2012
A Brief Letter on Signaling
February 9, 2012
How Deserving Are the Poor? Debate Wrap-Up
February 8, 2012
Being Single Is a Luxury
DAVID HENDERSON
February 10, 2012
W. Allen Wallis: An Appreciation
February 7, 2012
Break the Buck!
February 7, 2012
Is Iran a Threat?
February 6, 2012
Does Drawdown of Savings Explain the Postwar Miracle?
February 6, 2012
Lessons from Solyndra
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I could not find it after searching for a bit but RAND had a really good study about 10 years ago examining the pay of federal employees and how many separate organizations perform the same function. They recommended huge consolidation and reorganization of the federal bureaucracies. So I have been in your camp since reading a lot of this report.
It is a few hundred pages and a really good analysis/data that you should try to dig up and read.
The political problem is because congress (via committees) and cabinet members do not want to give up any power even if they would get sole control over another area.
I'd go further, and reduce the number of direct reports to three: one each for foreign policy, economic policy, & social policy. Perhaps the (politically) easiest way to do this would be to (unfortunately) actually add a layer over the current Cabinet, possibly by splitting the Vice Presidency into three offices (with the side effect of making the resultant VPs meaningful offices, unlike the current one).
Much of the current authority of the Presidency would thus likely devolve to these offices, with the President retaining only judicial nomination & legislative veto/signing powers.
As this would require an amendment anyway, the 22nd Amendment could be addressed, such that the President and Vice Presidents would be elected separately, thus 'unbundling' the three policy areas to the benefit of consumers (voters).
Speaking of Federal agencies that perform the same function, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. There are historical reasons why the two are separate, but the only reason they remain separate is that political intractability makes it too much trouble to merge them.
Obama apparently wants Congress to let him fast-track agency mergers. I almost drove my car off the road out of excitement when I heard it on the radio this morning.