The following is an article written by the Arkansas Convention of States Director Mark Alspaugh. We encourage all our volunteers to write their own op-eds and submit them to their local papers. It's a fantastic way to spread the word.
Winston Churchill said it well: “If you have 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.” Yet the Federal Register of regulations continues to grow and now is over 80,000 pages.
The Constitution grants Congress sole authority to enact legislation. Yet, under cover of authority, the unelected federal bureaucracy is incentivized to manufacture countless rules and regulations that have the force of law and to do so without substantive congressional oversight or accountability.
Regulations are now costing American families on average $14,974 per year, according to the Competitive Research Institute, which gives the government an “Unconstitutionality Index” of 51 for 2013, when 3,659 final rules were issued while Congress passed only 72 new laws. Research by the American Enterprise Institute shows that since 1949, federal regulations have lowered real GDP growth by 2 percent annually and overall by 72 percent.
Add unsustainable debt, unending scandals, bureaucratic corruption, declining international stature, weakening defense posture and an ever larger federal government and we have a recipe for disaster.
It isn’t a partisan issue. Washington will never voluntarily relinquish meaningful power, no matter who is elected. The federal government will continue to bankrupt the nation, embezzle legitimate state authority and destroy the liberty of the people unless political forces outside Washington intervene.
Understandably, one might feel helpless, frustrated and disappointed with government and conclude that our time may be running out. But there is a way “We the People” can restore constitutional government and re-establish state sovereignty. It is found in the gift the Founders gave us in Article V of the Constitution, the perfect answer for an out-of-control Washington.
Read the rest of the article here.
