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A HUGE reason not to elect shrilary, or dums.
Posted on: July 21, 2016 at 07:45:39 CT
GA Tiger MU
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We are increasingly run by overpaid, underworked burearcrats. We need far less but get ever more of them.
The Thin Red Line Against A Regulatory Onslaught
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made news early on at the Republican Convention when he threw his credentials down on the floor of the convention hall to protest a decision that blocked a roll-call vote.
But later on outside the convention hall, he was talking about a subject that had more import to businesses and state and local government -- the regulatory onslaught being unleashed from Washington today, and how to stop it.
Cuccinelli, who is now general counsel for FreedomWorks, led a discussion sponsored by the group with three other state AGs about how they've become the "last line of defense" against the regulatory state.
One message they made clear was that Congress is largely to blame.
"Regulatory overreach is the fault of Congress," said Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt. Lawmakers, he pointed out, have increasingly deferred to regulators in the executive branch to carry out vaguely worded statutes.
"It gives lawmakers clean hands as they campaign," Pruitt said, "because they can blame regulators for unpopular or costly rules. It's improper delegation abetted by court."
The pinnacle of this improper delegation was reached with Dodd-Frank and ObamaCare, which both handed regulators what amount to blank checks and which are spawning a massive explosion in new regulations.
Worse, federal regulators are all too eager to expand their reach and control over the country beyond what Congress already granted them, particularly when they're given a free hand by a president who wants to "fundamentally transform" the country.
Nevada AG Adam Laxalt said that "what we are seeing in the past few years is truly unprecedented."
Not only has Congress ceded power to regulators, it's done little to stop the overreach, leaving it largely up to Republican attorneys general to apply the brakes.
Cuccinelli says that "attorneys general have stopped more of this administration's overreach than the U.S. Congress."
A perfect example is the EPA's Clean Power Plan. During the Bush years, the Supreme Court sided with several liberal states who wanted the EPA to regulate CO2 emissions from cars and trucks, even though the clean air law did not mention carbon as a pollutant the EPA could or should regulate.
Under Obama, the EPA then granted itself the right to regulate stationary sources of CO2 as well, said Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia's attorney general, embodied in its new Clean Power Plan.
"The president's Clean Power Plan is worse than ObamaCare," Morrisey said, calling it a "regulatory power grab of historic proportions."
And this massively expensive regulatory scheme would be in effect now, if it weren't for the fact that 29 state AGs sued to stop it, which led to the Supreme Court's halting its implementation.
The EPA's equally massive new water regulations have been put on ice as well, after 13 states sued to block them. In this case, the EPA is trying to expand the definition of "navigable waters" in the Clean Water Act to, as Laxalt put it, "include just about everything in our state short of backyard swimming pools." Last fall, an appeals court in Cincinnati concluded that the regulations could not be enforced nationwide because "petitioners have demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merits of their claims."
The courts also blocked Obama's attempt to unilaterally grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants after 25 states sued to stop it (and after the GOP-led Congress backed a bill that would fund it).
So what can be done? Step one is to to get Congress to pass legislation that protects, rather than gives away, its authority. Step two is to rewrite most of the laws that have granted federal agencies so much unchecked power. Otherwise, there is little that lawmakers, AGs or anyone else can do to stop most regulatory actions. Third is to require more stringent reviews of regulations to make sure that they are worth the costs.
The state AGs are right when they say that it shouldn't fall on their shoulders to protect the prerogatives the Constitution grants to Congress.
The Thin Red Line Against A Regulatory Onslaught
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made news early on at the Republican Convention when he threw his credentials down on the floor of the convention hall to protest a decision that blocked a roll-call vote.
But later on outside the convention hall, he was talking about a subject that had more import to businesses and state and local government -- the regulatory onslaught being unleashed from Washington today, and how to stop it.
Cuccinelli, who is now general counsel for FreedomWorks, led a discussion sponsored by the group with three other state AGs about how they've become the "last line of defense" against the regulatory state.
One message they made clear was that Congress is largely to blame.
"Regulatory overreach is the fault of Congress," said Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt. Lawmakers, he pointed out, have increasingly deferred to regulators in the executive branch to carry out vaguely worded statutes.
"It gives lawmakers clean hands as they campaign," Pruitt said, "because they can blame regulators for unpopular or costly rules. It's improper delegation abetted by court."
The pinnacle of this improper delegation was reached with Dodd-Frank and ObamaCare, which both handed regulators what amount to blank checks and which are spawning a massive explosion in new regulations.
Worse, federal regulators are all too eager to expand their reach and control over the country beyond what Congress already granted them, particularly when they're given a free hand by a president who wants to "fundamentally transform" the country.
Nevada AG Adam Laxalt said that "what we are seeing in the past few years is truly unprecedented."
Not only has Congress ceded power to regulators, it's done little to stop the overreach, leaving it largely up to Republican attorneys general to apply the brakes.
Cuccinelli says that "attorneys general have stopped more of this administration's overreach than the U.S. Congress."
A perfect example is the EPA's Clean Power Plan. During the Bush years, the Supreme Court sided with several liberal states who wanted the EPA to regulate CO2 emissions from cars and trucks, even though the clean air law did not mention carbon as a pollutant the EPA could or should regulate.
Under Obama, the EPA then granted itself the right to regulate stationary sources of CO2 as well, said Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia's attorney general, embodied in its new Clean Power Plan.
"The president's Clean Power Plan is worse than ObamaCare," Morrisey said, calling it a "regulatory power grab of historic proportions."
And this massively expensive regulatory scheme would be in effect now, if it weren't for the fact that 29 state AGs sued to stop it, which led to the Supreme Court's halting its implementation.
The EPA's equally massive new water regulations have been put on ice as well, after 13 states sued to block them. In this case, the EPA is trying to expand the definition of "navigable waters" in the Clean Water Act to, as Laxalt put it, "include just about everything in our state short of backyard swimming pools." Last fall, an appeals court in Cincinnati concluded that the regulations could not be enforced nationwide because "petitioners have demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merits of their claims."
The courts also blocked Obama's attempt to unilaterally grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants after 25 states sued to stop it (and after the GOP-led Congress backed a bill that would fund it).
So what can be done? Step one is to to get Congress to pass legislation that protects, rather than gives away, its authority. Step two is to rewrite most of the laws that have granted federal agencies so much unchecked power. Otherwise, there is little that lawmakers, AGs or anyone else can do to stop most regulatory actions. Third is to require more stringent reviews of regulations to make sure that they are worth the costs.
The state AGs are right when they say that it shouldn't fall on their shoulders to protect the prerogatives the Constitution grants to Congress.
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A HUGE reason not to elect shrilary, or dums. - GA Tiger MU - 7/21 07:45:39