This article significantly misses the boat. While I agree with the premise, we don’t need another useless commission power hungry politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle will ignore.
What is needed is a significant cut in the many unconstitutional bureaucracies born in the autocratic Roosevelt presidency. Disband the Department of HHS, Agriculture, Transportation, Labor, Education, HUD and Energy.
Secondly, pass the Fair Tax initiative which will result in a cut in the massive corruptible and misinterpreted tax code and its monstrous bureaucracy. Only then can we return to the Constitutional foundations that made this country the shining light of liberty and freedom it was.
Anything less than this, is mere window dressing.
The administrative state must be brought under control
Federal debt will never be brought under control, nor will government’s intrusiveness be curtailed, unless people rein in the administrative state. Fortunately, some good suggestions on how to do so are published this week by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank dedicated to the goal of freedom for all people and businesses from unnecessary regulations.
Today, CEI releases “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State,” which collects massive data on the problem and proposes thoughtful ways to ameliorate it. Most of the recommendations are superb, and we would add a few of our own.
“The cost of government extends well beyond what Washington taxes,” the report begins. “Federal regulations add another $1.939 trillion to Americans’ annual burden.” Worse, “many crisis regulations become permanent regulations, or last far longer than is warranted.” And “regulatory costs stand at nearly two-thirds the level of [all] corporate pre-tax profits” in the whole country. This means “U.S. households pay $14,514 annually on average in a hidden regulatory tax.”
Fortunately, CEI proposes nine big ways to reform the system. The first would restore Congress to its proper lawmaking role by requiring specific congressional approval of major new rules before a federal agency may put them into effect. Another would limit the president’s ability to use “emergency declarations” that impose permanent new government controls while evading usual legislative and rulemaking requirements. CEI also repeats perennial conservative demands that regulatory rules have “sunset” provisions so they will fall off the books automatically unless specifically reapproved.
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If the massive, unwieldy, and oft-abusive regulatory state is to be brought under control, both the Administrative Procedure Act and civil service laws need drastic reform. Because this will require a huge number of changes that will upset many political fiefdoms, Congress is probably incapable of completing the task through its ordinary operations. A commission modeled on the base closure commission or, better yet, the markedly successful Social Security commission in the early 1980s, should be appointed. It should propose comprehensive reforms to each, with an eye also on the interplay between administrative rules and the laws governing the employment of those who implement them.
CEI’s report is a great resource and its proposals should be welcomed and implemented. Combined with a commission for systemic change, they might even tame the federal Leviathan.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...istrative-state-must-be-brought-under-control
What is needed is a significant cut in the many unconstitutional bureaucracies born in the autocratic Roosevelt presidency. Disband the Department of HHS, Agriculture, Transportation, Labor, Education, HUD and Energy.
Secondly, pass the Fair Tax initiative which will result in a cut in the massive corruptible and misinterpreted tax code and its monstrous bureaucracy. Only then can we return to the Constitutional foundations that made this country the shining light of liberty and freedom it was.
Anything less than this, is mere window dressing.
The administrative state must be brought under control
Federal debt will never be brought under control, nor will government’s intrusiveness be curtailed, unless people rein in the administrative state. Fortunately, some good suggestions on how to do so are published this week by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank dedicated to the goal of freedom for all people and businesses from unnecessary regulations.
Today, CEI releases “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State,” which collects massive data on the problem and proposes thoughtful ways to ameliorate it. Most of the recommendations are superb, and we would add a few of our own.
“The cost of government extends well beyond what Washington taxes,” the report begins. “Federal regulations add another $1.939 trillion to Americans’ annual burden.” Worse, “many crisis regulations become permanent regulations, or last far longer than is warranted.” And “regulatory costs stand at nearly two-thirds the level of [all] corporate pre-tax profits” in the whole country. This means “U.S. households pay $14,514 annually on average in a hidden regulatory tax.”
Fortunately, CEI proposes nine big ways to reform the system. The first would restore Congress to its proper lawmaking role by requiring specific congressional approval of major new rules before a federal agency may put them into effect. Another would limit the president’s ability to use “emergency declarations” that impose permanent new government controls while evading usual legislative and rulemaking requirements. CEI also repeats perennial conservative demands that regulatory rules have “sunset” provisions so they will fall off the books automatically unless specifically reapproved.
................
If the massive, unwieldy, and oft-abusive regulatory state is to be brought under control, both the Administrative Procedure Act and civil service laws need drastic reform. Because this will require a huge number of changes that will upset many political fiefdoms, Congress is probably incapable of completing the task through its ordinary operations. A commission modeled on the base closure commission or, better yet, the markedly successful Social Security commission in the early 1980s, should be appointed. It should propose comprehensive reforms to each, with an eye also on the interplay between administrative rules and the laws governing the employment of those who implement them.
CEI’s report is a great resource and its proposals should be welcomed and implemented. Combined with a commission for systemic change, they might even tame the federal Leviathan.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...istrative-state-must-be-brought-under-control
