Posted on 08/31/2002 10:51:15 AM PDT by forest
Back in the depression era, FDR claimed that he could get the nation's economy moving again if only he had extended powers over farming, business and industry, like his buddy Stalin had. To that end, the Roosevelt administration designed a complete regulatory bureaucracy, with each agency to be controlled by little politburos and the politburos, in turn, overseen by a dictator in the White House.
The problem was, the whole scheme was totally and completely unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court told the administration exactly that. So, FDR attacked the U.S. Supreme Court, threatening court packing and other unheard of arrangements to mitigate the Court's checks and balances.
Ultimately, Roosevelt won. Our Constitution suffered and the federal government has never been a Constitutional government since.
Today, there are at least 113 federal regulatory agencies passing laws they call -- with a wink and a nod -- rules and regulations. These rules and regulations affect everything the American people do and their hidden costs (hidden tax) are more expensive to most taxpayers than all other federal taxes combined.
For instance, according to the Cato Institute in a report by Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr. titled, "Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State," federal regulations cost the American people about $854-billion annually.(1) That amounts to a hidden tax of 8.4% of the U.S. gross national product annually. Put another way, the cost amounts to an average hidden tax bill of, on average, $7,490 per American taxpayer annually.
Every new federal regulation costs us more money. Congress is being a little more careful about staying out of the tax and spend mode lately, so the task is performed stealthily. Instead of funding a program on the budget, Congress simply requires state and local governments, or industry, to do it. Nevertheless, we get the bill, just as if it were a direct tax.
Regulatory agencies, of course, are totally unaccountable to voters. It shows, too. In the fiscal 2001 year, congress passed 108 bills that were signed into law. The regulatory agencies, however, wrote 4,132 rules (laws) that were inflicted on the American people. This is, of course, taxation without representation. Worse yet, it is also government without representation.
Think about that last remark: "government without representation." Not one of us, or even our representatives in government, voted for even one of the many thousands of rule-making bureaucrats. Not even one.
The very first sentence of the body of our Constitution implies that Congress shall make all law. Yet, there is a lawmaking ratio between the regulatory agencies and Congress of nearly forty to one!
So, when we ask where the inflation is coming from, we should look directly to government. The federal regulatory bureaucracy has written many controlling regulations for every product sold. Which means, every product sold in the United States costs the consumer more money because of these busy-body regulation rangers in the unconstitutional regulatory agencies. Congress knows this. But, evidently, they just do not care.
As Cato reports: In 1998, the median two-earner family's after-tax income of $41,846 contained $7,410 in hidden regulatory costs -- thus eating up about 18 percent of the after-tax family budget.
That equates to a lot more every year than most people pay out in house payments and food combined.
Here in the United States, the regulatory costs alone are more than the entire Gross Domestic Product of Mexico or Canada. Just the annual budgets for these regulatory agencies cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
So, when we look for the reason for the cost of living increase (inflation) every year, look to Washington. Congress is the direct cause of most of it because Congress allows the regulatory agencies to exist and function autonomously. It is time that unconstitutional scam ended.
1. http://www.cato.org/tech/pubs/10kc_2002.pdf
There are at least 113 federal regulatory agencies passing laws causing a hidden tax of 8.4% that is $7,490 per American taxpayer annually.
Regulatory agencies, of course, are totally unaccountable to voters. Congress is to make the laws. Yet, there is a lawmaking ratio between the regulatory agencies and Congress of nearly forty to one!
Well, ok. But give FDR a break. The debt the US
took on in fighting World War I caused years of
inflation. As a matter of fact, it was in the 1920s
that the phrase 'high cost of living' entered the popular
lexicon. Needless to say, FDR was not in office at the time.
"Today, there are at least 113 federal regulatory agencies passing laws they call -- with a wink and a nod -- rules and regulations."
Add to that list Executive Orders. In 1905 the State department ordered all federal offices to surrender the orders which had accumulated in their files. In 1907 the State Department sequenced its collection chronologically and assigned a number to each order.
No. 1 was assigned to the oldest order in the collection, a 20 October 1862 order by Lincoln.
Oh . . . is that how the system works? Fancy that, eh.
So, let's see here, us little citizens are supposed to sit at home and study four to five thousand poorly written and excessively wordy regulations every year. Then, we should draft opinion responses to each of them and mail said response to our three legislators on Capitol Hill and the imposing regulatory bureaucracy. And, in so doing, we are to expect that someone, somewhere will actually read and honor our response.
Does that about sum it up?
My point is that the whole of the regulatory system is unconstitutional to begin with. The Supreme Court told the FDR administration so. Then, FDR browbeat the Court into submission. That's American history. Clear fact.
That FDR got the Court to concede eventually does not change the fact that the whole procedure is still unconstitutional. The whole of the "War and Emergency Powers" scam is completely and totally a violation of the Constitution. Those powers are not granted to the federal government by the Constitution. Therefore, except through the use of force, they do not have any of that authority.
We have a word to describe people who enforce unconstitutional laws: criminal.
It's as simple as that. They either honor and obey the Constitution or they do not. If they do not, they are in violation of the supreme law of the land.
So, if I believe anything whatsoever the Founding Fathers and the first Congress published, I would also have to believe that the federal government is the largest single criminal class in the United States today.
It's either that, or it was the writers of the Constitution who were liars, cheats and dishonorable scoundrels. Today's system is but a sick parody of that government designed by the Founding Fathers.
Rescinding and stopping a lot signed by the IMPEACHED-PERJURER-In-Sink-Chief.
Although the system is designed to environmental law, it is applicable to nearly every agency of regulatory government. The implementation strategy is incremental and will drain the agencies of those who are worth saving. The system relies upon civic respect for private property rights.
The Great Depression was triggered by deflation which began in 1928. If 'high cost of living' was used in the popular lexicon during the 1920s, it was probably used by the same folks who referred to the Soviet Union as a 'Worker's Paradise.'
FDR doesn't need any breaks. He did more to destroy our Constitution than Clinton, and that is some record..
As to inflation -- It is caused by the debt money system employed by the unconstitutional Federal Reserve System. I can steer you to my book on that subject if you wish. But as Doug pointed out in his essay, the bloated bureaucracy is spending money freely. Since it is debt money, it increases inflation.
Now for a real clincher -- Not one dime of IRS income tax gets back to WN to pay the bills. But they keep right on spending. That really causes inflation. Go figure. The IRS stuff was revealed by the Grace Commission, and I posted that also.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.