Make Government Work?....Forget It

By, Chris Rossini

Several days ago Bloomberg News tweeted:

Congress on pace to have least productive year ever, with 56 pieces of legislation signed into law.

What fantastic news!

There are so many pigs fighting at the trough that Congress isn't as "productive" in squashing us with its laws. To those who value liberty, this is cause for celebration. As Mark Twain said: "There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress." And "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."




On the other hand, for those who live and breathe increases in State power, like David Brooks of The New York Times, this is something that needs to be fixed. All bottlenecks must be remedied.

Brooks throws his idea out there:

But there is a way out: Make the executive branch more powerful.

Fascinating to hear something like this in 2013. Back in the days of yore, the President was so powerless that an American citizen could literally walk up to his door to speak with him. Today, he's protected in ways that would seem like science-fiction to early Americans.

Today, the President is often called "The most powerful person in the world" and people lose their minds when they see him, as if they're at a Michael Jackson concert. There are people who actually cry when they see him....Cry!!

And here comes David Brooks saying we need to make the executive branch more powerful!

It’s not that the executive branch is trustworthy; it’s just that we’re better off when the presidency is strong than we are when the rentier groups are strong, or when Congress, which is now completely captured by the rentier groups, is strong.

Congress is strong? Ha!

For 30 years, Ron Paul condemned Congress for systematically relinquishing their duties to the executive branch. Congress has let the Executive declare wars on his own whims, which is by far the most dangerous usurpation of power and destroyer of liberty. Congress has been nothing but a rubber stamper, much like the judiciary. The Executive rules the roost. Congress is a weakling.

The allure of becoming a Congressman is to go to Washington to wet your beak. There are so many pigs circling the trough, throwing money (and perks) at members of Congress, that its become a new career choice to prostitute yourself to lobbyists for a living. Forget the marketplace, and serving customers. Let the pigs come to you and shower you with a sense of importance, lots of money, and maybe a few girls if you're lucky.

But David Brooks says the President would never prostitute himself like this:

...executive branch officials are more sheltered from the interest groups than Congressional officials.

What total nonsense. Brooks reminds me of Alexander Hamilton when he was pushing for a monarchy during the 1787 coup: "The advantage of a monarch is this – he is above corruption."

Uh, yeah....sure.

Brooks says we should ease up, and let the President solve the legislative bottleneck:

It’s a good idea to be tolerant of executive branch power grabs and to give agencies flexibility.

So there you have it. Hand over your life and liberty to the President and his Czars. That will get the regulatory machine chugging again.

Bottom line?

The U.S. is yet one more example in the long and drawn out history of people trying to "make government work". Rose Wilder Lane said it best in her magnificent work "The Discovery of Freedom" [Free PDF from Mises.org]:

They replace the priest by a king, the king by an oligarchy, the oligarchs by a despot, the despot by an aristocracy, the aristocrats by a majority, the majority by a tyrant, the tyrant by oligarchs, the oligarchs by aristocrats, the aristocrats by a king, the king by a parliament, the parliament by a dictator, the dictator by a king, the king by — there's six thousand years of it, in every language.

Every imaginable kind of living Authority has been tried, and is still being tried somewhere on earth now.

All these kinds have been tried, too, in every possible combination; the priest and the king, the king who is the priest, the king who is God, the king and a senate, the king and the senate and a majority, the senate and a tyrant, the tyrant and the aristocrats, a king and a parliament — Try to think of a combination; somewhere it has been tried.

It's like watching a dog chase its tail.

Man's quest to somehow "make government work" keeps spitting out the same result:

It doesn't.

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