One of the themes of this blog is the Over Regulated State. All I'm hearing from the newly elected "Leaders" is talk about the big things they're going to do; in my mind, it would be better if they spent the next two years throwing out every piece of legislation the administration passed. For each page of federal law passed, it has been generalized that 10 regulations are created. The Code of Federal Regulations is so complex that lawyer Harvey Silvergate points out that every adult in the country probably commits three felonies a day. The Heritage Foundation estimates that compliance with the increasing number of regulations sucks billions of dollars out of the US economy, with Obama's administration the most regulatory in history.
For the last five years, the president has aggressively exploited regulation to get his way. In fact, the Obama administration is very likely the most regulatory in history, issuing 157 new major rules at a cost to Americans approaching $73 billion annually.On the good side, a favorite of mine, Mia Love from Utah, was elected to the US Congress. A black American woman of Haitian descent with an inspiring life story (and one who will show you her citizenship papers), she is a well spoken advocate for free enterprise and self-reliance. I first wrote about her when she became widely known after a great speech at the 2012 RNC - and the hypocritical leftists slandered her insanely. We all know that conservatives and Tea Party voters are not the misogynistic racists that the left has been painting forever; these are the people who elected Mia, Tim Scott from South Carolina, Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to the House of Representatives. Maybe this will start to be recognized by the Media? Not a chance. But it's being noticed where it counts, among the people.
On the other hand, that disgusting pile of corruption in Colorado, Governor Hickenlooper got re-elected. So he takes Bloomberg's money, tramples on the rights of law abiding Coloradans, and pays nothing. The people of Washington approved I-594, the law that redefines transfers in terribly oppressive ways, creating a statewide gun registry in the process. And not 24 hours after winning, announced they were going after more anti-gun regulations. Most of my readers are also gunnies, but for those that aren't, "transfer" is a very specific legal term in firearms: the transfer of ownership and responsibility for the firearm. Until this law, a transfer was thought to be permanent; essentially just a sale. Sold under the usual lie that criminals use "gun show loophole" and private sales to get their guns, 594 makes every personal sale need to go through a background check and registration. That's bad enough, but 594 goes even further and makes a transfer out of something as trivial as loaning a gun to friend for a class or even at the range to shoot a magazine to see if they like it. Every simple act like that becomes a transfer under 594, requiring a trip to a gun store to fill out paperwork (it's unclear to me whether or not this is the ATF form 4173, and a NICS check), and I'm sure paying the gun shop to do so - there is a use tax that goes to the state, too. The Vote No on 594 group that sprang up to oppose this writes:
I've read that if you were to go on a business trip and leave your guns at home with your family, it can be argued you need to do a transfer for every gun, complete with trip to the gun shop. When you come back from your business trip, you'll need to transfer them back to yourself!
- There is NO general loan exemption for family members or friends, even in the presence of the owner!
- You couldn’t loan your sister-in-law a firearm for self protection!
- You couldn’t loan your adult sons shotguns to go hunting!
- A person could “gift” a firearm to a family member but could NOT loan or sell it to her!
There were other good things and bad. At best, we are still a Broken Republic. Guys like Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and the new crop including Mia Love, Tim Scott, and Tom Cotton, are all saying the right things and (at least in the case of the first three) trying to do the right things. Going through the thousands of pages of Obamacare, Dodd-Frank and the other major turds passed in the last six years to repeal them, including going through the places where tendrils of these laws extend is not glamorous or sexy (part of Obamacare was written into the TARP law, a full year before the real Obamacare passed). But it needs to be done.
Great post Si.
ReplyDeleteAt the national level nothing is going to change. Very little legislation made it through Congress in the past 2 years because anything the House found palatable Dirty Harry Reid usually killed in the Senate and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteNow that the GOP controls both houses they might be able to get legislation passed but if the SCOAMF in the White House doesn't approve of it.....and that's not likely he will either veto it outright or ignore it. Either way the bill dies. If Congress truly wants to accomplish ANYTHING of value this term they have to address the fundamental problem they face. That being what do you do with a communist in the White House. The only solution that comes to mind is impeachement. Otherwise we are looking forward to nothing but hot air and finger pointing.
Dan, I think what you describe - absolute grid lock - is a good thing. Let's say Bamster declared amnesty (it sure looks like he's going to): since Stupids have "Power of the Purse" they de-fund anything that could pay to administer it. They completely de-fund any agency he wants to do something through.
ReplyDeleteIf they just shut DC down for two years and sent everyone home, that would be an improvement. At least they wouldn't make anything worse.
Look at your life: is there anything that would be made better if they passed another law? I can't think of any in my case. Repeal laws? Oh, yeah. That gets better.
It's only gridlock in the capital building. In the White House it's commie business as usual. Congress doesn't have to fund anything for Obama to do what he wants. The budget....what gets spent and how is a formality, one that Reid has kept tabled for years. The House can not "authorize spending" and we might end up with the pseudo government shutdown we had last fall but even that would be orchestrated by the administration to make congress look bad.....the lamestream media isn't going to report the truth, they are going to tell the voters what Obama wants them to hear. And it will ALWAYS be congress's fault, not Obama's. And as an ace in the hole both the Treasury and the Fed reserve answer to the executive....meaning that money can be printed and spent as needed without bothering to go through congress. Obama is in the cat bird seat. He can do pretty much what he wants BECAUSE HE IS A CRIMINAL, the law means nothing to him. Congress however is hogtied by the law....without the votes they can't do jack frickin Shiite. Game set and match. Obama wins and finishes the plan his puppeteers have for him in the nexts two years while congress is vapor locked.
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