“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Monday, January 16, 2012

Congressional gridlock is good for America

The feckless media report ineptitude in Washington as a bad thing, but I cheer whenever I hear that Congress has failed to pass any bills of substance....

From WashingtonTimes -- It’s official: Congress ended its least-productive year in modern history after passing 80 bills — fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947.

Every day that Congress fails to pass any bills is another day that we retain what's left of our eroding freedoms and liberties.

"But Ed" you whine, "things need to get done in Washington." Like what? More stimulus? More EPA regulations? More seizure of power by our government overlords? No, Congress getting nothing done is good for America. It's bad enough that our state and local governments burdened us with 40,000 new laws that took effect on 1Jan. Why do we need our federal government taking away more rights?

5 comments:

david said...

passing legislation has become a metric but it is ill-conceived as measure of productivity or what is good for the country

Ed said...

Right you are, Dave. These guys pass new laws reflexively as if to justify their having been elected. The same as government regulators instituting new unnecessary regulations just for the sake of regulating. "We are regulators, therefor we must regulate".

"Getting things done" in Washington is almost always bad for Americans. I like the idea of part-time politicians who live and work in their districts and come to DC for like 3 months.

They should shut down the EPA for maybe 9 months out of each year and bring the bureaucrats back only when some pollution is detected somewhere.

Isaac A. Nussbaum said...

Shut EPA down 9 months of the year? Hell, yeah. Better yet, close it down, period.

And while we are at it, let's shutter the Dept's of Education, Commerce, Energy, Interior, and HUD,

(Dr. Paul's list, to which I would add the FDA).

David said...

Isassc, Now your talking.

Shutting this agencies down would go w/o fanfare and would have less a negative affect than you might think.

All "well-intended, good ideas" at one time (possibly) but now they hamstring the US but redirecting resources at a tremendous cost. One we can no longer afford.

Heck, I'd settle if we slashed each by some sizable % just to see. Of course it would take a while to determine the new stead state. And this last point is the reason they were able to be implemented in the first place. A good idea becomes a reality regardless of the result because by the time the results are felt (good or bad) the new idea is part of the bureaucracy and is now a "right".

Care must be exercised when growing the government or creating news laws (really the same thing) as they seldom go away. Be careful what you wish for.

Ed said...

The EPA didn't used to be on my list for shuttering, but they've become so extra-constitutionally powerful that somebody needs to reign them in. Maybe I would leave a skeleton crew there to monitor the Superfund site clean up, but other than that, clean air, clean water, and clean emissions laws are in place and no further regulation is necessary.