Republican millionaire and presidential hopeful Steve Forbes said last week that government is still too big, and that several agencies should be closed.
Forbes included his proposals to streamline and modernize the federal bureaucracy in a four-step economic strategy outlined in a speech last Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
"Now is the time to tear down the walls of big government so America may truly experience a new birth of freedom and opportunity," he said.
Forbes argued that the Energy and Commerce departments should be closed, and that federal spending should be capped.
Later, Forbes singled out the INS as the prime example of government inefficiency, the Associated Press reported. "The INS is a mess. They don't know how to use the resources. They don't know how to deploy them," Forbes said, while pushing for an increase in the number of visas granted to skilled immigrant workers.
Forbes accused the Clinton administration of putting too much trust in big government. "We trust the people," he said. "I'd say we have a winning issue here."