Are We Stuck Or Can the Big Government Bureaucracy Be Trimmed Back?

Posted by Tina

Whenever I get to a place where things look miserable and hopeless I go looking for rays of sunshine on the web. I found a ray or two yesterday at The Heritage Foundation. I’ll focus on Part 4 of a four part series that looks at the big tangled federal government, how it got that way, and what can be done about it. Heritage refers to the “administrative state” and suggest all three branches of government must participate in returning to a legal structure that adheres to Constitutional principles:

Each of the three legitimate branches of government has a role to play in restoring constitutional government and reining in the unconstitutional power of the administrative state.

1. Congress can take concrete and attainable steps to restore its constitutional responsibility for making the laws.

2. The President can take measures to attain greater control of the truly executive functions of administrative agencies and federal departments, restoring the chief executive’s constitutional authority to oversee executive branch affairs (and creating incentives for Congress to stop delegating its power).

3. The courts can take more responsibility in reviewing the decisions of administrative agencies and federal bureaucracies, both to prevent the expansion of their powers and to preserve the rule of law and the rights of citizens who are subject to the agencies’ and departments’ control.

Follow the link to read more about steps the three branches could take to dismantle the tangled bureaucracy of the “administrative state.”

Lets face it, one reason we’re in this bureaucratic nightmare is that the lure of easy money was more than the people could resisit, whether in big cities or smaller municipalities. When the federal government offers cash for education, or other local concerns, it’s hard to resist the temptation to offer local kids a “better shot.” But easy money turns into expected money and that turns into entitled money and all along the way the local people have forgotten it is their responsibility, not the federal governments, to see to it that their kids get a good education. Apply this simple example to everything from healthcare to energy, from the conservation to security and before you know it we are at the effect of decisions made by a few un-elected people in DC pushing paper, making huge salaries, and contributing nothing to the education of local kids. This amounts to a huge waste of “our” money.

We can all greedy, can’t we? We’re all sometimes lured by what seems to be the easier path. And it’s difficult to stop and consider how the decisions we make today can become tomorrows nightmare. But looking back we can see how greedily taking the easier path has landed us in a nightmare. We can see that federal education dollars has not resulted in better educated kids. We can see that giving up responsibility for false comfort or ease has a terrible eventual outcome.

Dismantling the federal bureaucracy would take persistent dedication by all three branches of government. It’s not something we can count on happening tomorrow but it’s foolish to shrink from making the idea a point of discussion. One of the ways a single person can make a big difference is to become educated about what could happen, why it must happen, and the benefits that would follow and then share that information and your thoughts with friends and relatives. Joseph Postell Ph.D. of Heritage is there to help. We are the pilgrims for America’s future. With a little effort we can make this happen