A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied

Henri Frederic Amiel – August 1851

---

I love taking quotes from those wiser than me and applying them to today’s world.

I must admit that I detest the con man currently in the Oval Office. He is a phony in almost all regards. But, since I like to look for the silver lining in all clouds, but especially the dark ones, I look forward to some of the things he might accidentally do.

One of those things is to remake the federal bureaucracy. In my mind it is just getting too bloated and inefficient to be untied.

It needs to be cut.

The first place (but it will probably be the last place) is the Department of Defense. Cuts there are now impossible to obtain, as the politicians scream “you are putting our boys lives at stake” Generally, because of this rhetoric the Defense Department actually gets more money than they really know what to do with. We spend more on defense than 95% of the rest of the world combined. We have hundreds of bases in Germany that are left over from World War II (that ended 80 years ago). It’s time to let the EU take care of the EU defensively.

Another is the red tape that has been building up in almost every department. Again, it is so bloated that untying it is impossible.

Maybe, just maybe, some of the knots can be cut and the resources can be used by future presidents where they really matter.