Wednesday, September 23, 2009

How To Bring The Federal Government To A Standstill

No, not Al Qaida.

No, not with North Korean nukes.

No, not with Iranian nukes either.

No, not by returning to the gold standard.

If you really want to bring the federal government to its knees, just have all members of Congress sign a pledge "never to vote on any bill unless they have read every word of it." This, according to an editorial in the Washington Post.

Well, of course they can't possibly read every word of every bill, says the Post, without making the obvious connection that perhaps democracy and representative government are being seriously damaged by a bloated Federal register of criminal and civil laws that nobody, not even the people that voted for them, can read or understand. Dealing with the federal law has become so complicated that you need, not just one lawyer, but a staff of them to keep yourself out of hot water.

The situation is beginning to resemble that of medieval Europe, when the Bible was the law, but it was written in Latin, which none of the common people could read. So they depended on priests to translate and interpret it for them. And these authorities often interpreted the law to say whatever benefited them and their cohorts in the ruling classes.

Bring the feds to their knees? Sounds like a good idea! And not a shot fired. Where do I sign up!

2 comments:

Old Grouch said...

I'll see you that and raise you this one:

6. Every declaration, order, rule, or proclamation, however styled or construed, for violation or nonperformance of which any Person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property in any degree, is a Law, and every Law of the United States shall be placed before, and debated and passed by, the Congress; Regulations drawn up by unelected functionaries, and having the force of Law upon their face, are null and void in every respect.

THAT would take care of all the "unanticipated consequences" stuff.

Don said...

Personally, I'd love to see the addition of mandatory "sunset clauses" for every bill passed by Congress. If they have to spend all their time reviewing and renewing old laws, they won't have any time to screw around with new ones. Not to mention it will force the congresscritters to focus on what's important instead of what's politically expedient.