By STEPHEN MOORE
Every schoolchild knows—or used to know—that the United States has three branches of government. At least that’s what the textbooks say.
But actually we have four branches of government.
That’s because for decades, Congress — the legislature — has delegated legislative power to the US government’s unconstitutional fourth estate: independent regulators. By some estimates, more than 300 of these agencies poke their noses into every aspect of American life and business, from the kind of car you can buy to the temperature setting of your thermostat to what you can build on your own private property.
Who are these regulatory czars accountable to? Who chose her?
To his credit, former President Donald Trump has attempted to contain the regulatory blob. He promised to repeal two ordinances for every new ordinance enacted during his presidency. He actually saved about five rules for each new one.
But President Joe Biden loves to regulate.
On his first day in office, Biden withdrew from Trump policy, and the situation has roughly reversed. He has also done away with strict cost-benefit analysis for new rules. This should ensure that the regulation does not have a price that far exceeds the benefits to society.
Now, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we are witnessing a regulatory explosion costing the private sector up to $2 trillion a year. The federal government does not obey the Ten Commandments. There are now over 10,000. Biden’s latest whopper is an Environmental Protection Agency rule that would effectively ban the production of gas-powered cars within 10 years.
Almost all recent presidents have left office with more rules and bureaucracy than when they took office. Ronald Reagan and Trump were two exceptions. Richard Nixon founded the EPA even though states were doing a good job cleaning up the air and water. It was the George W. Bush administration that passed an energy law that required household appliances like household refrigerators and dishwashers to be “energy efficient,” which in practice meant they didn’t work very well.
What can be done to shorten the Regulation Kraken’s tentacles? How about cutting those budgets and their enormous bureaucratic staff? Over the past 30 years, regulators’ budgets have more than tripled, adjusted for inflation, from $25 billion to $75 billion. If Biden has his way, the regulatory octopus will top $100 billion next year to arm super-regulators like the Federal Trade Commission’s Lina Khan. Khan has tremendous authority over whether companies should be able to merge. She has never run a lemonade stand in her entire life.
Congress still has power over the purse. Halving regulatory budgets would still ensure safety, financial health and a clean environment while saving half a trillion dollars over 10 years. Republicans should start by making sure the IRS noobs don’t trick 87,000 other IRS agents into harassing citizens and hacking into every private transaction we make.
Yes, we want solid regulation. But it shouldn’t cost our families and businesses $2 trillion a year.
Stephen Moore is a Senior Fellow of the Heritage Foundation and co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. His latest book is Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy.
© 2023 CREATORS.COM
Comments are closed.