The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 9)

p>Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. is dreaming. There will be no reduction in the size and scope of the federal government -- not when that federal government costs almost half of the American public nothing in terms of taxes. br> -- Arnold Ahlert br> Boca Raton, Florida /p>

There is much in Mr. Crews' article to recommend it. One could say getting Congress to take overt responsibility for its actions may be a task comparable to cleaning the Aegian stables, but that would be an unfair criticism of the hygiene of livestock. To call the regulatory mess created by the Federal Government a "ball and chain policy" is far too polite, and I congratulate him on his restraint.

Mr. Crews touches on a crucial topic: the practice of delegating lawmaking power to agencies, which has resulted in the pernicious growth of administrative law. The resulting mountain of regulation is simply a response to the incentives created by Congress for each bureaucracy to regulate, monitor, grow, increase its scope, "justifying" its continued existence, so that it can compete for increased funding at the trough filled by compliant and malleable taxpayers.

For those in Congress who have a vested interested in the growth of government, it is a very agreeable arrangement: they merely need to avoid altering the incentives while the process continues unabated. At current growth rates, the slow-motion suicide of this nation will be completed in just a few more decades.

Could it be possible that an event so outrageous in its extent would spur overwhelming popular pressure to return our government to its rightful role(s) as specified in the Constitution? At this point I rather doubt it, given the Faustian bargain most of the electorate has struck with government. To borrow a line from "Zed" (Rip Torn) in the movie Men in Black: "You're everything we've come to expect from years of government training."

p>It may not be too early formulate your escape plan and keep your bug-out bag nearby. br> -- Bud Hammons /p> p> HATE THE SINNER

topics:
Taxes, John McCain, Barack Obama, Business, Environment, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Israel, NATO, Energy, Alaska, Oil