Carlton

Oops! Please, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating a coup at all in this point (you are correct, the US is not yet a dictatorship). My point is that the Constitution, unfortunately, can't just be thrown out and totally re-written, but has to be amended (as you mentioned), band-aided bit-by-bit. I'm stating the only way I can fathom that it could be thrown out would be insurrection. I see this as unfortunate due to the number of inherent problems in the framing, largely due to the plague of altruism which infected the framers, as well as their underestimation of the capabilities of private enterprise. If it's possible, it'll take a long time to fix it -- always harder to roll statism backwards than push it forwards; the only alternative I see is that we do eventually become a dictatorship, in which case, "the tree of liberty would need to be refreshed with the blood of tyrants", to paraphrase Jefferson.

Certainly, you are correct that the Constitution does include this. If I recall correctly, it also includes for the establishment of a post office, as well as other public-sector absurdities, and a number of back-doors that have led us down the road towards statism. Steve, you mention the Treasury might handle fraud of minting coins, i.e. counterfeiting (if I'm understanding you correctly). I'm not sure how this would apply, since the private mints should be completely controlling the minting; I think fraud, in this sense, could be handled completely in the courts, with the private mints vs the counterfeiters. I'm not sure a completely separate Treasury would be necessary, since the current implementation acts as a way to pool (and distribute) received money; it may make more sense to have individual treasury departments for military, police, et cetera, that control the distribution of money within that particular organization, akin to TheAllotrope's mention of distinct accounts. As TheAllotrope mentions, the Constitution can be amended to fix such issues, which may be the only practical option; ideally, an Objectivist government may do better by completely re-writing the Constitution, instead of taping up the leaks, but I wonder how that could come about besides violent overthrow.

I'm not sure your argument for something like the CDC is made clear. Surely, the tracking of diseases could be handled better in the private sector and through media. I'm not sure that even the prevention of a spreading of disease is really best-handled in the governmental sector -- certainly, in the case of an outbreak, we know that the CDC is ill-prepared for administering vaccinations, which could be handled in the private sector, for-profit. Generally, I think you are in the right, but I would think that "tolls on roads" is counter-Objectivist, as you've mentioned, since roads should be completely privatized, and this is initiating force against the private companies which control the roads. I'm not aware of an Objectivist argument against the complete privatization of roads. Certainly, people will financially support the military and police if acting in their self-interest. Perhaps "war bonds" could be bought to help support, although, I'm not very familiar with such methods. Also, I think the department of State's power would also have to be lessened, because, as it stands, so-called "foreign relations" often involve manipulating global trade through tariffs, duties, aid, loans, et cetera, which are unacceptable in a free society.