Regulating Regulation
In a recent posting over at The Corner, John Derbyshire wrote:
Our federal government is way too big, no doubt about it. David Gergen, whom I must say I personally have always found to be a sure-fire insomnia cure, opines on the topic in my Sunday newspaper’s pull-out Parade supplement today.
Meanwhile, The Economist estimates that the federal government now employs a quarter of a million people to write and enforce regulations.
Etc., etc. There’s a problem within the problem, though. It’s not just that the feddle gummint is too big over all; it’s that the parts that should be small, or better yet non-existent, are way too big, while the parts that should be big are too small.
One of the greatest abuses and usurpations of power we are subject to is the regulatory power. In and of itself, this way of setting policy is not a bad device for executing the law. Laws are often written in the general and regulations are needed to set the limits in the specific.
However, as it has done with every institution and tradition it has had any control over, the Left has corrupted the purpose and intent of the regulatory power. As I wrote not too long ago:
…Unaccountable authorities, unrestricted Boards Of Health who are not answerable to the people’s representatives, zoning commissions who despise private property, and on and on and on: it’s regulation without representation. To add insult to injury, regulations now carry the force of law, so that unknown, unelected, and unvetted bureaucrats perform the roles of legislators, judges, and executives.
One of our goals has to be to shine a very bright light on the abuses of power of these bureaucrats and their boards and commissions and offices. Their mere existence constitutes a violation of our rights as The Sovereignty of America.
For so long elected officials on the Left could not openly advocate for certain positions and get re-elected because those ideas were so radical. Instead, they discovered that, if they passed vaguely-worded laws which could be interpreted in many ways, they could implement their policies via the regulatory power — in the dead of the night, as it were, when everyone was sleeping — and no one would notice most of the time. Such has been the case at all levels of government in this country.
While we keep an eyes on the laws being passed, we also have to keep an eye on the regulations promulgated. This would be a massive effort, requiring the commitment of tens of thousands of people, each one charged with monitoring a different department or area in an agency. But I think we could do it.
NO REGULATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!
WOLVERINES!
Regulators writing regulations that have the force of laws, no matter how efficient a system are Unconstitutional. The Executive branch enforces laws but may not make law. The courts not regulators interpret laws.
Sadly, you state the truth of a bygone and much lamented age.