1 Wrong question.

"what do you wish you government to do?" is more useful. What departments you keep to perform those tasks is an administrative question.

I have seen government offices get shut down on occasion. In every case, their functions get transferred to another office. Net result is no savings either in tax dollars spent of personal liberty.

If we answered that there could only be a DoD, DoS, and DoI, we would still be saddled with the same size government we have today, but with everything stuffed into those three departments.

This is the same question that was already answered by the framers of the Constitution. What should government do? It specifically did not address how the executive branch should be organized to accomplish those purposes, since that is trivial.

I am not totally against revisiting a Constitutional convention once in a while just to answer that question, but I have no illusions that a second draft will be better than the first.

2 Professor Hale has it right, except to add "...in what priority, and at how much total cost?"

"what do you wish you government to do?" There's no limit for some people, they wish the government could provide everything. Arnold Scharzenegger (sp?) said, "We'ld love to do everything for everyone, but we just can't afford it."

If there's only enough money to fund the top 10 priorities, that's what get's paid for, and the rest we do without.

I'd buy into a constitutional convention if the purpose was to replace our election system for congress with one based on a draft, random selected inividuals from each congressional district/state.

3 For starters, the EPA, OSHA, the NEA, Depts of Education/Commerce and Energy.

Congress has added insult to injury by allowing many agenices, like the EPA to write regulations, rather than just enforce them.

So maybe Congress needs to go as well?

4 Not "what do you wish you government to do?". The Constitution already outlines what the federal government is allowed to do.

If you want the government to do more than that, you need to amend the Constitution.

I see no justification for any of the alphabet soup created from FDR on in that document. They all should go. Start with the BATFE, the Department OF Energy, HEW, OSHA, and the EPA. That ought to help the deficit a bit.

5 Donb't forget the DEA and the "great war on Drugs". This is really a war on law abiding citizens. We definitely don't need the TSA and Home land insecurity can be scaled back considerably. Agriculture departmetn and labor departments are out of mode. Also, war on poverty, head start, department of education, in short, most of the government.

6 What Federal Agencies Must We Keep?

Defense
State
Justice
Interior (radically reduced)
Treasury (ditto)
Commerce (ditto)
Transportation (ditto)

Not much else that I can think of, offhand.