The Root of All Evil

Well, not evil. But when so much money is involved, our Congressional representatives would have to be super human to avoid corruption and waste. Instapundit notes that a poll shows 58% of respondents wouldn't care if Congress met every other year.

My background in the state legislature has given me a healthy respect for the legislative branch, so I can't go along with something like this that would transfer powers to the 24/7 executive and its executive rule-making bodies that apply (or don't) the laws plus the ever-present courts who interpret the laws and judge how the executive carries them out.

As I've said before, if you don't like the policies of the federal government, the answer isn't to periodically change the policies followed by the federal government by voting in new people at the top, but to reduce the importance of the federal government to its core areas. Otherwise it's a losing game as federal powers ratchet up and expand to new areas, and slow only occasionally, with the executive agencies fighting a delaying action until the people at the top are more in line with what the permanent bureucracies want.

I'm young enough to not remember a time when the federal government wasn't dominant but old enough to remember the expression "don't make a federal case out of that." Do young people even understand what that means? In a world of federal government intrusion into every aspect of our lives, it makes no sense. Everything is a federal case.

That expression means "don't make such a big deal out of that." That's because the assumption was that if the federal government got involved, it had to be a very important thing, indeed. Otherwise, the states or local governments--or Heaven forbid, families or societal norms of acceptable behavior--would address the issue.

Congress should meet every year. For better or worse they are our representatives and they balance the executive and judiciary. We should value that. But let's curtail the scope of what the federal government sticks it's fingers in. Let's make a federal case out of only very important things.

Maybe restoring United States Senators as appointees of the state legislatures would be a good start to restoring the balance of power and reining in Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: Steyn has related thoughts about how Washington has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.