The House is trimming the Transportation Security Administration, started after 9-11, costs: $10-billion over 3 1/2-year. House Aviation subcommittee Chairman John Mica of Florida said that the new bureaucracy was created in haste, without forethought, in the frenzy after the attacks.

Republicans want to return all airport screening positions to the private sector, while Democrats insist that the government can do a better job if given a real chance.

Can a bureaucracy, once created, actually die? We’ll have to watch this one.