Administrative Law

        President Obama recently enacted new immigration law by Executive Order and justified the action by saying comprehensive immigration reform was needed and Congress was not doing the job.  If he felt Immigration reform was so important, why did he not address it when he was first elected, and controlled both the House and Senate?  He decided to ram the joke called the Affordable Health Care down our throats instead.

Obama is correct that comprehensive immigration reform is needed, but no immigration reform has any chance of succeeding if we do not completely secure our borders first.  He is also correct that Congress is not doing the job, but he is totally wrong to blame the Republicans in the house when Senator Reed has not allowed around 300 bills passed by the house to see the floor for a vote or discussion. 

I am even more concerned with administrative rules by government agencies that have the force of law.  The Environmental Protection Agency has enacted many rules that not only don’t have the approval of Congress, but in many cases have been voted down by Congress.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently been in the news for targeting conservative groups and the cover-up that included “lost” emails.  I find some other practices of the IRS just as dangerous to our freedoms.  Did you know the IRS has the power to confiscate cash deposits from bank accounts with no explanation or accountability?  This is supposedly done in situations where the IRS suspects the cash deposits are the result of illegal activities, even though the account holders have never been convicted of any crime and have little opportunity to appeal. 

On October 23, 2012, I did a blog titled “Too Small To Succeed.”  In this post, I gave an example of a small businessman that had considered closing his business because of new federal government regulations, but decided to spend the money to comply.  When he had his final inspection, the government bureaucrat congratulated him because they had not expected him to continue in business.  The government agent admitted that the intention of the new regulations was to close 320 of the 400 businesses in the industry.

On January 29, 2013, I did a blog titled “Environmental Protection Agency” where I discussed new proposed restrictions for industrial boilers.  These new regulations would have shut down the paper industry in this country.  The result would have been lost jobs, higher paper costs, and higher emissions worldwide when the paper business moved overseas. 

We are often so naive that we think these things can’t happen in this country, but they happen every day.  The media does not cover them, our elected representatives look the other way, and we are often not aware of them until they affect us personally.  Then it is too late.

        Liberal Progressives believe our government should evolve to an administrative state run by neutral experts.  Progressives want to make our Constitution a “living document” subject to change in order to make this form of government legal. In theory this sounds good, but always results in increased corruption by the political elite.  Since Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency, both parties have, slowly advanced this increase in a large administrative government.

        In my book, Business Fits, I give some examples of how to deal with local bureaucrats, but the best solutions are the ones that reduce the size of the federal government, eliminate Executive Orders, and make sure government agencies do not have the power to implement new regulations without the approval of Congress.  I am afraid that congress will continue to concede their powers until they have made themselves irrelevant. 

        Our founding fathers were well aware of the potential problems of an administrative state that would take away our freedoms.  That is why they designed a republic with a balance of power.  Let’s return to following the Constitution and restore that balance of power.