Marco Rubio Wants to Permanently Extend NSA Mass Surveillance

National Journal ^ | January 27, 2015 | Dustin Volz

[C19fan]

Sen. Marco Rubio wants Congress to permanently extend the authorities governing several of the National Security Agency's controversial spying programs, including its mass surveillance of domestic phone records.

The Florida Republican and likely 2016 presidential hopeful penned an op-ed on Tuesday condemning President Obama's counterterrorism policies and warning that the U.S. has not learned the "fundamental lessons of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Rubio called on Congress to permanently reauthorize core provisions of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, which are due to sunset on June 1 of this year and provide the intelligence community with much of its surveillance power.

[Dalek]

Up until recently, the limits of the budget simply stopped bureaucracies from expanding to infinity.

A similar principle applies here. Until recently, the limits of surveillance (the effort it takes to open paper mail, plant listening devices, physically follow and eavesdrop on people, etc) kept it under control -- even a totalitarian state couldn't see everything, and the effort of trying was a major economic drag. With their new toys, the snoops have been overcoming these limits (and getting lazy -- remember how the Boston Marathon bombers were able to do their deeds even though the Feds got advance warning).