Posted on 03/26/2018 2:15:33 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Thanks to the 17th Amendment, which slowly neutered the senate and eventually the entire congress, an administrative state performs legislative, executive and judicial functions. Congress goes far out of its way to avoid lawmaking and oversight of the agencies it created.
The final straw should have been Obamas Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Obamacare Death Panels. These agencies were set up to operate beyond the reach of the institution that created them. As such, they are even further displaced from the electorate than previous executive branch agencies. As an additional outrage, the fees and penalties the administrative state inflicts on the public are pure profit; collected funds do not go to the treasury. During the dark Obama years much of the money went to private social justice groups, with the remainder to the agency. We heard not a whimper from the GOP, and when the CFPB and Obamacare were finally challenged in court, scotus found them to be Constitutional.
The central feature of legislative bodies is deliberation. A legislature that doesnt deliberate is a façade, an elected mob in which members look out for their personal wealth and power and little else. Congress has basically stopped overseeing administrative agencies in recent decades, and nowadays practices what political scientists call emergency rather than police patrol oversight. Almost all the oversight we see now occurs only when there is an emergency, when something has gone terribly wrong as in the 2014 Veterans Health Administration scandal, and the recent Florida school shooting.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah wants to nudge congress toward the Framers 1787 ideal. No, he isnt calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment, but instead for congress to exercise a modicum of oversight over executive branch agencies. It is an effort in the right direction.
(Excerpt) Read more at articlevblog.com ...
Too little too late.
Yeah, the matter of who paid the senator’s salary was a topic at the Federal Convention.
The sense of the convention was that state delegates under the Articles of Confederation were too close to their states.
I think the Framers did a great job. Senators were no longer delegates subject to recall. They were to represent their corporate states for fixed terms just as reps represented their constituents.
No cajones, no backbone! That is the #1 problem with Congress. We focus too much time on whether the candidate is perfect on all the issues and less time on whether the candidate has the intestinal fortitude to ignore the media/pop culture.
Money in politics is also a problem. Because the left says this, we oppose the premise. But the reality is that Congress Critters are forced by their leadership to spend so much time raising money that they have no time to study the bills that are now created by leadership, not by congressional committees.
FR/Tea Party volunteers can take money out of politics. The average volunteer campaigning door-to-door means a 100 vote difference for the candidate. Most Congressional Districts (even Blue Districts like my John Lewis District) have hundreds of activists who attend meetings and spend hours everyday in internet activism. Many districts have thousands of activists.
If we were to leave our keyboards and meetings and talk to our neighbors we volunteers would be the ones who determine election outcomes and not the money. Making the money less important gives the candidate more time to read the bills before he votes ... and to spend time in committee writing the bills and not be too busy to do it.
Furthermore, if we shift the paradigm from money to volunteers, the type of candidate who chooses to run will shift from solely money to one who can motivate the volunteers and who will listen to the volunteers.
We get the politics that we deserve. When we change what we do, we will deserve better.
I don’t think it would ever be too late to change.
However, changing the mindset might be difficult. Senators would have to actually be beholden to the interests of their state and be thus accountable.
....These agencies were set up to operate beyond the reach of the institution that created them. As such, they are even further displaced from the electorate than previous executive branch agencies. As an additional outrage, the fees and penalties the administrative state inflicts on the public are pure profit; collected funds do not go to the treasury. During the dark Obama years much of the money went to private social justice groups....
Probably are still funding said Social Justice groups??
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Senator Mike Lee of Utah wants to nudge congress toward the Framers 1787 ideal. No, he isnt calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment, but instead for congress to exercise a modicum of oversight over executive branch agencies.
Where was Lee on this, during the dark reign of 0Commie?
Senators would have to actually be beholden to the interests of their state and be thus accountable.
Ha! They prefer representing the interests of lobbyists.
Much more lucrative. :-(
Sigh. You and I both know that is the problem. How to un-addict them from the money, and make them servants of the state they represent? That IS the problem.
Thanks for highlighting this—been heavily involved in Article 5 here in Michigan.
How goes COS in MI?
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