The DC's Growing Arm

As most of us learned in school (but our kids don't), the US constitution reflects an overriding belief in checks and balances. The three branches of government and federalism with its emphasis on limiting central government and empowering states. Today, the Founder's plan doesn't seem to be working so well.

In his book, Over Ruled, (The Human Toll of Too Much Law), SCOTUS Judge, Neil Gorsuch, presents his thesis on the ever expanding role Federal Government plays in our daily lives. More specifically, the unchecked explosion in laws and rules they impose, which now control pretty much every fiber of American existence.

Over Ruled illuminates numerous fascinating, scary facts. I plan to sprinkle some in over the next few editions of CME. Let's tee this up by recalling that the high up on the list of reasons the colonies went to war with Great Britain in the first place was King George III's completely deaf ear toward laws the colonies proposed.

Laws, in the main, are intended, to ensure the principles of the Constitution are upheld for every citizen. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. And most important off all - freedom to be as good as you can be. From the beginning, lawmaking was supposed to be contemplative, time consuming, energy draining - not willy nilly. Lawmaking was supposed to be difficult, even overwhelming. But, not the number of laws themselves.  James Madison could not have imagined the current explosion when he warned..."(We) cannot allow the nation's laws to grow so voluminously that they cannot be read or so incoherent as to not be understood by the common man."

Here's some examples of what led to the phrase - in one ear and out the other....

• Fewer than 100 years ago, all Federal Statutes (laws) filled one volume. By 2018, they required 54 volumes and 60,000 pages. Now Congress creates over 300 new statues every year. The average bill has grown from 2 to 18 pages. Some run hundreds, even thousands of pages. Remember when Pelosi said about the Affordable Care Act - we have to pass it to find out what's in it. Small wonder the ACA was over 1000 pages.

• But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Agencies filled with unelected bureaucrats also write rules and regulations that define how to interpret and apply these statutes. These rules are kept in the Federal Register, which was 18 pages long in 1936 when created. Now it is 188,000 pages long and, worse yet, growing at the rate of 70,000 pages a year. It has been estimated it would take three years to read, let alone comprehend and analyze. On top, agencies have issued an additional 13,000 "guidance documents" over the past 10 years.

• Near as I can tell there are 5 million pages of telling you what you can and can't do.

• And it's not like these are unimportant. For example, the diameter of macaroni must be between .11 and .27 inches, whereas the diameter of vermicelli must be .06".

• In NYC, to open a restaurant you must deal with 11 City agencies, secure 30 permits and pass 23 inspections. While all along the way there are legions of bureaucrats to make sure you don't take any shortcuts.

• The state of Georgia required 21 years at a cost of $1 billion to deepen a channel in the Savannah River. Fourteen of those years were clearing regulatory hurdles. The job entailed removing five feet of muck.

• So no surprise, the number of lawyers in the US grew by 1060% from 100-2021. The population only grew by 33%. Let's see. That couldn't be 30 times faster could it?

  
  

In 1982, the DOJ created a task force to count the number of federal laws (not including agency rules or guidance). The lawyer in charge, after two years, quit saying they'd read 23,000 pages and there were at least 3000 crimes. A decade later, the number is over 5000. Hence the saying "show me the man and I'll show you the crime."

And Federal government interference is not limited to the laws it puts on the books. From 1960 to 2019, Federal aid to states grew from $70 to $700 billion. Guess what grew along with the $$$...strings. Lots and lots of strings. Don't follow Beltway rules and wishes and watch how fast the bucks disappear.

So what do we have to show the proliferation of government intervention? Well, not much if you judge by the cohesiveness of our society and the advancement of decency. Two decades ago, 70% of Americans went to church. Now that number is less than 50%. More than half of Americans think the "other party" is a danger to the American way of life and a threat to achieving their goals in life. Civic organizations like the Elks (six US presidents) have seen draconian drop offs in membership. Just like our Military who regularly fails to meet recruitment quotas. How much does ever obtrusive government have to do with this? Hard to say, but plenty I reckon. Especially now that lawfare has taken root.

The mushrooming takeover of states rights by the Federal government has many onerous ramifications. Until 1979 we had no Department of Education. Now it employs 4000 and consumes $70 billion in taxpayer dollar every year. And that's just one example. One is certainly cost. Delays. Harassment. But one is also that it stifles innovative solutions to America's many problems. If we depend on solutions to come from Washington, DC, we are relying on Ivy League elites completely devoid of feet on the ground experience. Solutions are based on perceived "science" and political favor. Not the actual culture and conditions in places where most Americans live. Ivory tower "experts" in DC have little sense of what a rancher in Wyoming, a single mother in South Chicago or an oil patch worker in Texas face on a daily basis.

Think of the states as 50 different laboratories. This means ideas, test cases, experiments can be happening in 50 places, not just Agency conference rooms on the Beltway. Squelching the incentive and freedom of States to invent and test solutions drastically reduces the potential to solve America's problems and address our challenges. Just think of Covid masking.

Remember this guy is a Judge, the highest kind. The law is his career, his life. .And he thinks there is WAY TOO MUCH LAW.

Congratulations

According to readers and editors at PolitiFact, an organization which claims to be a neutral arbiter of truth in politics, the biggest lie of 2024, surely a competitive category, was Donald Trump suggesting that cats and dogs were being eaten by Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. 

I say, what about the LIE of the CENTURY? Four years of asserting Biden was cognitively "fit as fiddle". Don't believe it? Just check out the debate.

No Man should be Judge of His Own Case

Love this saying. Means the rewards and consequences you reap for your actions must be judged by others..

Few things are DUMBER than putting decisions in the hands of those who suffer no consequences if they are wrong!

GM Bails on Robo Taxis

After investing $10B. They entered the fledgling space when they bought self-driving start up, Cruise for $1B. Amid a flurry of dangerous mishaps, CEO Mary Barra decided enough was enough. Google's Waymo unit is still pursuing.

This is a good example of getting your core competency right. GM's is making cars. Google's is AI, information technology, computers. Guess which is more important when the computer is driving your car?

Biden's Parting Gift to 'Public Servants'

The Biden administration announced another $4.28 billion in student loan handouts as President Biden and Vice President Harris prepare to leave the White House. The massive loan handout will give 54,900 public service union workers loan forgiveness.

By the way...

Only 10% of all US workers are in unions. This is down from 20% in 1983. Half. Only 6% of Private Sector Workers are in unions, whereas 33% of Public Sector workers belong. Thing is they all vote as told. At least used to.

A Farce to the End

Biden just commuted sentences for most federal death row inmates in the final month of presidency.

He is commuting the sentences of nearly all the inmates on federal death row, a move that comes not even two weeks after he went through with the "largest single-day grant of clemency" in American history, so the White House announced Monday.

The convicted murderers who will now escape execution include: Marcivicci Barnette, who killed a man in a carjacking and his ex-girlfriend; co-defendants Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks, who kidnapped and killed a woman after escaping prison; Anthony Battle, who killed a prison guard; Jason Brown, who stabbed a postal worker to death; Thomas Hager, who committed a drug-related killing; David Runyon, who participated in the murder-for-hire plot of a Naval officer; Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old girl; Rejon Taylor, who carjacked, kidnapped and killed a restaurant owner; and Alejandro Umana, who killed two brothers inside a restaurant.

President Biden also pardoned two Chinese spies and the relative of a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party who was caught with tens of thousands of images of child pornography on his computer. Wanna guess what the Quid Pro Quo was there?

Glad He Can Walk

On Sunday, NYPD arrested a migrant who set a woman on fire on a NYC subway train and watched her burn to death. Sebastin Zapeta, who entered the county ILLEGALLY from Guatemala, was arrested for the heinous death of a woman who was lit on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn, New York. He was deported under Trump in 2018 but snuck back in under You Know Who.

An NYPD spokesperson reported, "As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the female victim, who was in a seated position. The suspect used a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds." When officials boarded the train at the next stop, the victim was pronounced dead.

Her clothing "became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds," said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, describing the case as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being." The suspect sat on a nearby bench outside the train car and watched as officers and a transit worker extinguished the flames.

My son, who lives and works in Manhattan, recently moved into a new apartment within walking distance of his office. Thankfully he no longer has to take the subway at 11 pm. After what happened to Daniel Penny, it will be a cold day in hell before bystanders intervene to assist.

Meanwhile...

Tren de Aragua (you know, the violent Venezuelan gang) now has a recorded presence in at least 19 states as of December — up from 16 states last month. Tren de Aragua (TdA) activity is reported in New York, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Illinois, California, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina and — most recently — Maryland, North Dakota, Arizona and Utah. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has designated TdA as a Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO), describing it as "a brutal transnational criminal street gang from Venezuela." Amazing. Fear not - only one more month until Tom Homan GRABS the reins..

Merry Christmas and Get Ready for a Happy New Year.