Posted on 10/14/2010 8:49:47 AM PDT by La Lydia
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, A.D. 56-120 ** Congress passed and the president signed 125 bills into law in 2009. Your tireless federal regulatory agencies were even busier: They issued 3,503 rules and regulations. Regulations considered in recent years have included energy-efficiency standards for clothes washers and pool heaters, SUV emission rules and the Consumer Product Safety Commission's designs to regulate escalators (safer than unregulated stair steps, by the way) as a "consumer product."
The year's Federal Register - the daily depository of federal regulations - already tops 61,000 pages. According to research conducted for the Small Business Administration by economists Nicole V. and W. Mark Crain, annual off-budget regulatory costs exceed $1.7 trillion, an amount equivalent to more than half the level of the federal budget itself and on a par with the stratospheric annual deficit.
So much for the constitutional injunction, "All legislative Powers ... shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." The unelected rule America; welcome to "regulation without representation."
Congress - while itself no model of restraint - is the only entity accountable to us that can cut off agencies' water. In response to this fire hose of regulation, Rep. Geoff Davis, Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, unveiled the REINS Act (Regulations From the Executive In Need of Scrutiny) to require congressional approval of major agency rules and regulations before they are binding. Major rules are the ones costing $100 million annually.
The iron law of bureaucracy dictates that agencies can't police themselves, so reaffirming Congress' accountability to voters for agencies' most costly rules is a basic principle of good government....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
All the anti-libertarians on the FR should welcome this event. Isn’t a never ending avalanche of laws necessary to ensure a safe and moral society? So how well it’s working.
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, A.D. 56-120”
Here’s another good quote for you:
“No tyranny is more cruel than the one practiced in the shadow of the laws and under color of justice — when, so to speak, one proceeds to drown the unfortunate on the very plank by which they had saved themselves.” Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline.
The more numerous the laws the more expansive the selective enforcement of said laws is.....
See: Immigration, Tax Laws, etc....
For every one law passed they should have to cancel or void out 2 laws until they can get the ENTIRE federal code to fit in book 1 inch thick, 8-1/2 by 11 inches and with 10 point font in it.
If bureaucrats knew that they could simply wait out an elected official, that official would have NO power at all effectively relieving us of any representation.
Term limits should be applied by the people at the ballot box, not by rules made up by politicians - DUH.
The 'safe and moral society' laws are a slim minority.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with. - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged; 1957 That is government in a nutshell. There is no way a small business can comply with all the rules and regulations promulgated by government agencies.
In this country those Chilean miners would have died before the EPA issued a request for proposals on a study to determine whether some lizard was endangered by the drilling.
The more congress permits this unconstitutional power-grabbing to occur, unchallenged, the more irrelevant they make themselves. I don’t know why they fail to see this. It’s nice to see DeMint and others starting to take action.
We have to get back to the place where ANYTHING
that has the force of law
has to be passed by both houses of Congress
and signed by the president.
No “granting of discretion” to individuals, offices, or “bureaus”.
Actually I was thinking about a limit equal to big novel - about 100,00 words - no abbrieviations, no recursive or self-referential statements.
Better yet, require the Speaker of the House and president of the Senate to be able to recite them from memory!
“So much for the constitutional injunction, “All legislative Powers ... shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” The unelected rule America; welcome to “regulation without representation.” “
Love how we have already given up on the rest of that line from the Constitution as the limits of the constitution are meaningless to Congress and the president just like their hand picket federal judges:
“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States”
We the people must get their consent to even ask them to to consisted the possibility that they themselves might have overstepped their constitutional authority and upon our reserved rights. And at the end of the day THEY the usurper of our rights are the judge of their own infractions.
This whole system is a fraud as long as the Federal Government gets to dictate the limits of it’s own authority. Thomas Jefferson was right. Its too bad we had a tyrant like Lincoln to uses the sword of force to impose the tyranny of unconditional and unlimited government upon the people WITHOUT their consent to be governed.
The Constitutional and the Republic is dead.
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.