Dear Mr. Trump,
I offer the following suggestion in the spirit of wanting to help Make America Great Again.
Though the Supreme Court has upheld the Constitutional legitimacy of independent federal regulatory agencies, that does not mean they are Constitutionally legitimate, or that they must continue to exist in their current form or continue to exist at all.
There is no provision in the United States Constitution for any federal regulatory agency. Every regulatory agency was created by a statutory act of Congress, which means every regulatory agency can be transformed, defunded, or eliminated by a statutory act of Congress.
As President, please consider a series of high-profile, public, televised interviews with the directors of various federal regulatory agencies. With spotlights shining and these government bureaucrats on the hot seat, ask questions such as:
- Where in the Constitution is the authority for your agency?
- Why do regulations have the power of law when they are not, in fact, laws?
- Why do unelected, unaccountable, unconstitutional bureaucrats issue regulations that self-governing citizens must follow?
- How many businesses did your agency harass last year?
- How many businesses did your agency force to close last year?
- How much do your regulations increase the cost of goods and services for consumers and how harmful are those higher prices for the poorest Americans?
- How many Americans remain sick, or die, or otherwise suffer because of some product or service or medicine or technology that could not be offered and sold on an open and free market because your agency would not allow it?
- How many businesses have moved their operations to other countries because of your regulations?
- How often are your regulations used by one business to give themselves an advantage over their competitors or to burden their competitors with regulatory disadvantages?
- How often do citizens, including business owners and corporate officials, who are to be the subjects of regulations advise on the formation of regulations?
- How many property owners has your agency bullied or extorted in exchange for some regulatory license or permit or waiver?
- How many charities, churches, schools, and other organizations that promote views different than yours has your agency intimidated?
- What is the budget for your regulatory agency, who pays for the salaries and expenses of your agency, and what rightful claim to other’s people money does your agency have?
- How much do regulators and bureaucrats make at your agency?
- How many bad employees are you prohibited from firing because of civil service tenure?
- Why are government agencies so inefficient compared to private businesses and organizations?
Mr. Trump, the truth is that independent regulatory agencies do more harm than good. They are not nearly as effective as market forces and open competition among businesses, with this qualification: market forces and open competition require an environment of freedom, not an environment in which freedom is displaced by government regulatory control.
To boot, regulatory agencies create all kinds of bad and perverse and counter-productive incentives for those who work in and those who have crony connections to federal regulatory agencies.
If you need any more information regarding this subject, feel free to ask. I’ve been studying the federal regulatory state for many years.
In the meantime, let’s bring public attention to the great damage being done by these unconstitutional, expensive, and wasteful agencies. Let’s build broad and deep public support to go after the modern regulatory state: Many timid members of Congress need that, if there’s any hope that they will finally start to consider one or all of these options:
1. Scale back the size and budgets and scope of power of independent federal regulatory agencies.
2. Transform some or all regulatory agencies into mere advisory commissions that have no regulatory power at all, and instead study various problems and offer their research to Congress.
3. Eliminate some or all independent federal regulatory agencies altogether.
This is how we can make America Great Again! And I want to help.
Sincerely,
Thomas L. Krannawitter, Ph.D.
President of Speakeasy Ideas
