Those programs don't protect anybody, DougR. They just create a whole lot of bureaucracy and job security for a bunch of bureaucrats while making it easier for the government to spy on civilians (the ultimate form of "big government"... not altogether unlike what existed under the communist regimes). And the Office of Special Plans is the agency that is responsible for providing the Bush administration with what the Bush administration has admitted was faulty "intelligence" that led to the US going to war with Iraq (at the cost of the lives of hundreds of US citizens).

More police on the streets and better security at ports and other vulnerable places, and better access to health care would go a long way toward protecting US citizens. But Bush doesn't want to fund those things.

I'll think of more examples as time permits.