In another thread, Mr. Bill in PA made an astute analogy:
“DC is like a mill town. There is only one real employer, the federal government, and Republicans are viewed as a threat to the local livelihood”. I’ve been to many mill-towns. Most of them are former mill-towns, now, sadly.
Why does the Federal Government operate out of one city?? OK, keep WH and congress there but there is absolutely for all of the federal govt to be in a few square miles.
Put Dept of Agriculture in the Midwest, closer to the agriculture.
Dept of Energy? between Texas (fossil fuel) and Arizona (solar fuel) maybe.
Pentagon? Florida. Launch ocean going ships and space ships from there. Don’t foresee many attacks to fend off in the Potomac.
Dept of HHS? The rust-belt? heroin regions?
Spread these VERY good paying jobs around the country. Maybe a little more mixing of the constituents and the governing people could make them more effective.
How many of us telecom with colleagues and customers hundreds of miles away? EVERY HOUR of the day!!!
Some candidate Dem or Repub should take up this cause. Break up the DC cabals!!
Too many entrenched thousands of jobs. And many are essential.
But if you separate complicated systems into sub-assemblies or modules they are easier to evaluate and troubleshoot.
We’ve all seen LARGE companies that resided in one city…that eventually became a dinosaur mega-entity. Unmanageable. Separate the agencies might make them focus more on their tasks. And it would let more constituents see the feds at work.
I’m not anti-govt, but it is too big. Why keep it all in one city?? What is the benefit?
Say the Dept of Ag moved to Des Moines?? Several hundred $100K plus jobs in the area. Towns fight to get an Amazon Fulfillment center and virtually nobody there makes $100k.
They govt offices can be anywhere. There a service business. They don’t need access to waterways, rail, forests, ore mines.
Good for Repub(s)…operating costs would be lower. Easier to manage.
Good for Dem(s)…reduce some income inequality. Good jobs in flyover country.
What purpose does it serve centralized in one place???
How about…No New Construction Starts in DC!!
Like how people used to rebuild their houses in a flood plane when the water recedes.
Those swampy places don’t get any better. Took the insurance companies to make that point.
Well, that’s not true. The move itself would cost billions, if not trillions - and few “operating costs” would go down.
Every job gained in “flyover country” would be a job lost in DC - although in reality if something like this were to happen, most of the staff would likely move with the agency - at least all the good jobs.
The only winners would be the government contractors hired to move, build, clean, etc.
Think about it. What happens when the President wants a cabinet meeting? Does that mean everyone has to fly in?
What about one-on-one meetings with the President?
Are the joint chiefs gonna get on a plane in Florida every time the President needs to be briefed in the Sit room?
Because of our constution that created the Federal District specifically to house and headquarter the Federal Gov’t.
They feared having it in any one or multiple states because it would concentrate federal dollars and power in that state or states creating an equality problem.
Of course the way MD and VA have been taken over by federal employees living in them proves those concerns were quite valid.
If anything the federal district should be expanded so as to quit screwing up the politics of neighboring states.
When really important cabinet meetings are needed those few dozen people would still travel to a central secure place. We’l still have plenty of govt jets flying to meetings. Most of the daily stuff can by Skype…half of the participants probably sleep through them anyway.
Some of the people in DC might want to leave that area. OK…no new construction. Don’t tear down anything under construction.
I’m sure operating costs of anything in DC are expensive. In a league with Tokyo, Dubai, or San Francisco. Anybody hear of new businesses beside Lobbyists and Op-research going into DC-Baltimore?
Maybe disburse the K-Street folks too. That would help.