I remember when President George W. Bush announced the creation of the “Office of Homeland Security” and the appointment of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as the first head of the OHS. It was in October 2001, and the nation was still reeling from the attack on September 11, 2001.

At the time I was a freshman in college and a diehard neoconservative. Usually, I would blindly support anything President Bush said, but I distinctly remember being uncomfortable with the name of this new Cabinet level position. Homeland Security certainly didn’t sound like a traditionally American agency. It sounded like something that belonged in Nazi Germany or the USSR. Perhaps, that uncertainty was the first gasps of my libertarian soul bubbling to the surface.

Most people don’t know that the Department of Homeland Security was actually proposed prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001, in January 2001 by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century. It was revamped and fast-tracked into existence as a response to the terrorist attacks. The Department of Homeland Security was established on November 25, 2002, by the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

And here we are today. The Department of Homeland Security has been reduced to a bargaining chip (actually it probably was never much more) in the latest phony clash between Democrats and Republicans.

ABC news has the scoop:

The department is caught up in a fight over President Barack Obama’s immigration actions, with Feb. 27 as the date when the $40 billion budget would shut off. A House-passed bill would cover the department through Sept. 30, the end of the current budget year, and overturn Obama’s move to limit deportations for millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally. But in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has declared a stalemate and urged the House to make the next move. Senate Democrats, while in the minority, have been able to block action on the bill in protest of the Republican language on immigration.

The whole thing is actually pretty comical, considering that a “shutdown” of Homeland Security will have pretty much no impact at all. Out of the 230,000 department employees, 200,000 are considered exempt, so they would keep working even if Congress fail to come to a compromise.

What if the Department of Homeland Security was shut down for good? 230,000 government jobs would be lost. This would only be a temporary shock though, as demand for the continuation of services would quickly fill any voids that needed to be filled. Just like with any other good or service the market would dictate demand for jobs and opportunities for capital investment.

Rather quickly, a $40 billion dollar hole in the federal budget would turn into a productive sector of society. Of course, we are a long way from realizing this kind of reality. Far too many still believe that a coercive government can only deliver the services provided by the agencies that comprise the Department of Homeland Security.

But it never hurts to dream. Without dreams we wouldn’t have a vision of what a free society could offer.

Liberty Links!

– Activist organization OffNow reports that a pair of Tennessee bills are threatening to ban material support and resources from an NSA facility.

– Ben Swann reports that the NSA is bracing for a major new leak that do not originate from NSA whistle-blower Ed Snowden.

– Anti-war reports Egypt has launched airstrike attacks against ISIS targets in Libya. This comes after the terror group beheaded twenty-one Egyptian Christians.

– The Week has the scoop on Samsung’s controversial Smart TVs and their ability to record your personal conversations.

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