My View

Random ruminations from your resident curmudgeon...


To say the federal government is too big, too unwieldy, and too intrusive is a blinding flash of the obvious to most people. The American people are burdened with a myriad of new laws that Congress enacts every year. It is not only the laws that are put into place by the legislative branch that are burdensome. No, it is the mountainous number of regulations that are passed by the bureaucracy in Washington that intrude on our everyday lives and limit our freedoms.

Take a look at this picture from Senator Mike Lee:

What you are looking at in these stacks of paper is the over 80,000 regulations enacted by the bureaucracy in Washington LAST YEAR.

And notice the small stack of papers on the top right of the cabinet? That is the number of new laws and regulations passed by Congress last year.

Looking at this, I am stunned. While Congress often draws the ire of voters for its position on various issues, you get a visual representation of what the bloated bureaucracy in Washington is doing to our country, to you and me.

This endless regulation of our activities by bureaucrats in Washington is onerous and costly. Even more fundamental is the fact that this great country was founded on the principal that most of what we as free citizens did was none of the government's business to begin with.

The intrusive nature of the massive bureaucracy in Washington has found its way into every nook and cranny of our daily activities. There is virtually no aspect of our personal life that cannot or is not controlled by the federal government.

This shift of power to Washington and to unelected bureaucrats has not happened overnight. It has occurred incrementally over time, changing sometimes so subtly that the change has almost passed unnoticed.

Until free citizens look up one day and realize that they are not as free as they thought.

Having this enormous power centralized in Washington and into an unelected group of bureaucrats does several things, all negative.

It disenfranchises the citizens of this country, taking away their freedom in a process that gives them no voice over the control of many important aspects of their life. Do you think people in Tennessee, South Carolina, Montana, or any of the other states have very different ideas of about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness than does someone in Washington? The "I know what's best" attitude by those in Washington is most often out of touch and unrealistic with the realities of life that most of us encounter.

The centralization of power in Washington and in unelected bureaucrats also means that any lobby (read: deepest pockets) can buy influence in a city whose culture is predisposed to venality. All of us have seen the flawed legislation that has come out of Congress, and the accompanying regulations from the bureaucracy, that wind up costing us money and limiting our freedom.  Yet if you follow the money, one often finds that those deep pocketed lobbyists have prevailed to have Congress and its minions in the bureaucracy enact that legislation for their pecuniary benefit.

And all the while our freedoms are eroded and our wallets lighter.

Do you like being groped by a rent a cop at a TSA checkpoint? Like it or not, you will be if you have to fly.

Did you and I vote for this? Do we have a voice in this process?

Contact your Congressman and see what kind of response you get. Better yet, try talking to the TSA bureaucracy. The experience of having a tooth pulled with no anesthetic would be more pleasant.

Here is the point that we should all keep in mind:

We as citizens have lost control of our federal government.

Washington has become elitist and drunk on the power that it has amassed over the years. While we rail at our elected officials, the real power and the negative economic impact that we feel comes from the unelected bureaucrats in Washington.

Their regulations are strangling our economy, taking money out of our wallets, and radically curtailing our freedoms.

Yes, the laws that Congress passes are a problem. Obamacare is a poster child for this. Under girding bad legislation from Congress is a host of bureaucracies that will take those bad laws and regulate us to oblivion.

So what are we to do?

The first step is to understand the impact of the endless amount of regulation that is coming from Washington bureaucracies. And that regulation is not designed to make our life better. It is designed to amass power, control, and money in the hands of a few.

Recognizing that fact, we must engage our elected representatives and demand that that they begin to push back against the monstrosity that is our federal government. And if our elected representatives will not, then it is time to put into office those who will.

The November elections are a good place to start.

We can continue to let unelected bureaucrats and elected representatives run roughshod over our freedoms.

Or we can begin to take back our government.

It's our choice.

And that, my friends, is my view.