Decentralize the Gov't (Physically)

[andyjackson1828]

I have been thinking that we ought to move a lot of gov't operations out of Washington DC. We shouldn't have all our eggs in one basket, in case some sort of attack happens. People who live in other cities and stats ought to have a shot at these jobs without having to move. And the country should be less focused on DC, and less East-Coast Centric.

My Plan

Three Branches: Spread them out evenly across the country

The President stays at the White House.
The Congress is moved to Kansas City. About half way across the nation
The Supreme Court goes to San Francisco.

Cabinet:

State stays in DC with all the embassies and the Pentagon stays in Northern Virgina (too big to move)

The rest move:

Education Department to Boston
Energy Department to Phoenix
Veterans Affairs to New Orleans
Labor to St. Louis
Transportation to Detroit
Interior to Denver
Agriculture to Chicago
Commerce to Seattle
Treasury to New York
Homeland Security to Minneapolis
Justice to Atlanta
HHS to Dallas
HUD to San Diego

Independent Agencies:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Las Vegas
Federal Comunications Commission: Los Angeles
Food & Drug Admin: Miami
NASA: Houston
IRS: Columbus, OH
Census: Buffalo
EPA: Portland, OR
etc....

It's the 21st century if any of these people need to have a meeting they can use video-conferencing.

Is this a good idea or am i whacked?

[LuminousX]

1. Federal Gov't... decentralized over multiple time-zones!?

Yikes.

Chaos.

Not a bad idea on paper, in practice, I think it would be far too costly.

[Q3JR4]

3. Well, they want to run the country like a business.

Some cross time zone corporations deal with teleconferencing and it works for them. I don't know why it would be any different for the federal government.

The only problem I see (which has probably been solved by the previously mentioned corporations) is that communication between the different agencies may not be as secure as it could otherwise be. With breakthrough's in encryption technology, though, that wouldn't really be a problem.

Instead of one capitol for this country, we would have in effect capitols for different branches of the government. Sure, a decentralized capitol would take away some of the prestige of Washington D.C., but it would also make all of us more secure in that if one seat of a branch of government is attacked there would still be others.

On the other hand, right now we only have one target to defend (D.C.). With a decentralized government, that would no longer be the case.

[atreides1]

2. I Like It

Sounds good to me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Put more power back in the hands of states and municipalities

while you are at it.

[mrsglobe]

5. You may know that CDC ...

has always enjoyed its location in Atlanta several hundred miles from Washington, the Sec of HHS, and esp Congress. They started out there b/c they worked with malaria, but it's worked out well for several reasons.

Decentralization has many benefits, and I, who live near DC, like the idea of Congress in Kansas City (I know they'd be enthusiastic about being there). You might get more of a chance of passing this if you sent our stalwart representatives to Vegas, however, and it might be good for the whole country--give them something else to do.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi mrsglobe!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[JayS]

6. I think much of the Government should move to Luckenbach.

http://www.luckenbachtexas.com/

[Gin]

7. I think we should privatize the government...and let the corporations run

the country....at least it would be more honest... because...they are already running it.

Who could be president?

[JayS]

8. "Who could be president?"

How about that Nader guy? :)

hehehehe

(I'm running away now!)

If we are going to move to Luckenbach the new president will have to be Willie Nelson. :)

[JayS]

10. Perhaps we could just...

...use dummies in Washington to serve as decoys while the real politicians are off elsewhere doing the public's business.

Come to think of it...we already do this but the real government must be darn well hidden because I have no idea where it is. Area 51 maybe? :)