Americans often express astonishment when they learn that many of the nation’s laws — the bulk of its “regulations” — have not been written by Congress. Though the Constitution grants to Congress alone the power to legislate, Congress cedes most of that power to Executive Branch bureaucracies.
Last Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul hosted a panel on government regulatory abuse. Covering this “round table” discussion, Lou Dobbs, the Fox anchorman, interviewed Sen. Paul, and the two highlighted a number of regulatory horror stories:
- A man from Hungary was put in jail for three years for cleaning up an illegal dump that had been put onto land that he had purchased.
- A family was harassed for raising rabbits without a license — fined $3,000,000 but given the out of a mere $90,000 fine if they paid within 30 days by credit card.
- Members of another family found themselves face to face with EPA bureaucrats, who halted their housing project, demanded costly site restoration, and charged them with criminal liability for not immediately complying.
The law that’s directed against this latter family, by the way, “is about wetlands,” which, Rand Paul informs us, Congress has never enacted laws about: “‘Wetlands’ is something defined into existence by regulatory agencies.”
In The Road to Serfdom F. A. Hayek showed how undemocratic and abusive “central planning” becomes. Apparently, even without a grand, overarching plan, regulation of the micro-managing kind navigates the same path.
Demand more “regulation”? Expect arbitrary judgment and unreasonable requirements — tyranny — as the result.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Renegade Regulatory Agencies”
Paul:
You have hit on the major problem with government today. The congress has abdicated their atuthority and responsibility to the executive. What they don’t give freely, the exec takes by force and intimidation. The alphabet agencies need to be evaluated and those deemed detrimental to liberty need to be eliminated from the political landscape. It could be handled by the states at their level. Unfortunately, there are no legislators who have the intestinal fortitude to get the job done. Therefore, the executive will continue to grow and encroach until there is no liberty for any.
I know one thing unless things start changing in a major way the poor people in this country are gonna become angry when they can not even afford a can of pepsi thats has even gone up in price, all the food has doubled since he thang has entered office, I do not like him and hisjumping jack queen they are a shame to this country they spend money at will OUR money and let people starve I believe they are a sub-species
Carl — Right on! Our Congress was intended to be the most powerful branch and has rendered itself the least powerful … all while the members enjoy long careers and lavish perks, pay and pensions.
Linda — Good point. I think the dramatic rise in food prices has been hidden by the down-sizing of packaging and largely ignored by the media. But my wife and I — and you and likely many other consumers — have certainly noticed.
Paul, please define where these incidents took place and some of the details about them. Something smells fishy here.
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Thanks Paul. I am about to start looking into who in the hell is making all these laws. You have pointed me in the right direction.