What conservatives will never admit.

You know if you listen to certain shows or outlets, you’ll hear a lot about the current administration running up debt and adding all kinds of spending to the Federal deficit. You’ll hear a lot of lip service about the current administration making government bigger too and when people counter by pointing to the faults of the previous (GW Bush) administration in terms of the financial condition of the country when the last election rolled around the same people will try to gloss over it as quickly as possible.

One thing you won’t hear about is how the former administration spent wildly and made government larger too which was a big part of the problem. It’s a bit of selective amnesia that is extremely telling because it’s not a question for these critics about spending as much as it is about what you spend money on.

Here are some interesting facts you won’t hear mentioned and even more interesting is the legacy that rarely gets mentioned – is it time to rethink the whole Homeland Security thing?

With more than 200,000 employees, DHS is the third largest Cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Homeland security policy is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council. Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy.


According to Peter Andreas, a border theorist, the creation of DHS constituted the most significant government reorganization since the Cold War, and the most substantial reorganization of federal agencies since the National Security Act of 1947, which placed the different military departments under a secretary of defense and created the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency. DHS also constitutes the most diverse merger of federal functions and responsibilities, incorporating 22 government agencies into a single organization.

The DHS independent auditor is KPMG, one of the Big Four audit firms. Due to the level of material weaknesses identified, KPMG were unable to audit the DHS financial statements for FY 2010. KPMG were unable to express an audit opinion on the FY 2009, FY 2008, FY 2007, FY 2005, and FY 2003 financial statements. Attempts to access the reports for FY 2006 and FY 2004 within the 'information for citizens' portal met with a 404 error. The Message from the DHS Chief Financial Officer in the FY 2010 report states 'This Annual Financial Report (AFR) is our principal financial statement of accountability to the President, Congress and the American public. The AFR gives a comprehensive view of the Department’s financial activities and demonstrates the Department’s stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

Okay, so let’s stop for a second and role that over in our heads for a moment...

A Republican administration created a new Cabinet department that is the third largest (doesn’t sound much like smaller government to me). Of course though, in the new millennium if you create something like this especially if you’re fiscally responsible, you’ll be sure to put in some kind of oversight, no?

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

But wait, there’s more!

You think perhaps I’m being a shill here? Perhaps I’m overstating my case?

The Department of Homeland Security has spent up to $71 million developing a vast, computerized information sharing system that many emergency responders across the country don't understand and don't use, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by CBS News. The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is an internet-based, password-protected system that allows local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to share information in real time as an emergency or disaster unfolds. But many officials tell CBS News they'd rather pick up the phone or be on the scene than manage emergencies from a keyboard. 
Government auditors say regardless of the scenario, HSIN is redundant. The GAO report to be released next Thursday finds the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have no less than 17 terrorist information sharing systems like HSIN that in total cost more than $800 million. Last year, the Senate Homeland Security Committee sent a letter to DHS complaining that only 6% of 18,000 first responders use the network.

 And the question here is this: with all this money spent are you really that much safer? Or is it just another one of those things magic tricks, a smoke and mirrors game putting money in some people’s pockets under the guise of the government taking a more active role in making the world ‘SAFE!’

Five Transportation Security Administration workers at a southwest Florida airport have been fired and another 38 suspended after an investigation found they failed to perform random screenings last year.

The 43 disciplined workers, a combination of front-line screeners and supervisors, represent about 15 percent of the roughly 280 TSA employees at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

I’m skeptical of all of this crap. Honestly getting people to take their shoes off at airports or to surrender up shampoo bottles or to submit to cavity searches just makes it more inconvenient to travel and I have to think there are better ways to do things. Also the business about profiling in a politically correct society is just patently ridiculous – I’m not expecting the senior widow from the midwest to seize a plane. Treating everyone on the same level when it comes to security risks is just plain stupid and a tremendous waste of money and effort.

Plus, I’m of the George Carlin School of cynicism when it comes to these things. I don’t like seeing liberties taken away under the guise of making the world a ‘safer place.’

Then again, we’re not hearing the administration’s critics talking about dismantling things as a fiscally responsible mover, are we?