On the Friday broadcast of HBO's "Real Time," host Bill Maher proposed the Department of Homeland Security be dismantled. Maher made the suggestion during a panel discussion about the feud between Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Chris Christie. His guests, former. Rep Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Josh Barro of Business Insider and Alexis Goldstein also weighed in on the price of national security when it comes to personal liberties.





BILL MAHER: Do you think we can get rid of the Department of Homeland Security? I mean, this is one of those monstrosities that came out of 9/11. It has, I think, 240,000 regular employees -- Janet Napolitano quit at the top. The top 15 jobs there are vacant because no one wants to work there. It's thankless because some shit is going to happen and it's mostly luck, whether you're there or not when it happens. You can't stop everything. No one wants the job. Why don't we just get rid of it?



ALEXIS GOLDSTEIN: We unequivocally should. And I think this was an organization formed in the wake of 9/11, we had to do something --



MAHER: It was a Democrat idea. Republicans were against it. It was the last thing that Republicans were right about, and then they went, 'Oh, wait, we're Republicans, we can't be right about something.' So they joined the Democrats. They said it was going to be a giant bureaucracy.



FRANK: I would not like to have it abolished for this reason -- it could be substantially diminished. Al though, there’s still going to be an immigration service, there’s still going to be the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). I think it should be substantially downgraded. But I have relied on it. Here’s the issue. The argument for staying in Afghanistan, which I will continue and return to because it is a dominant argument now, are we going to continue the overspending by tens of billions of dollars, a trillion over a decade fighting a threat that really isn’t there very much?



GOLDSTEIN: And then it creates this beast you keep having to feed.



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MAHER: But you (to Barney Frank) know better than anyone, no program we start ever ends. Whether it's mohair subsidies -- we still have 50,000 troops in Germany! Is Hitler a treat at this point? If we can't get them out of Germany, I don't see --



FRANK: they were there for Stalin, be fair.



MAHER: They were there for Stalin, who died in 1953. Yes, that's right. (HBO's Real Time, August 2, 2013)