“Hardly any of the domestic spending of today's federal government is associated with one of the enumerated powers.” – By The People
In March 2021, Congress passed one of the largest and most partisan bills in US history. Enacted under the guise of COVID relief, over 90 percent of the 1.9 trillion-dollar price tag went for expenses scarcely related to the COVID pandemic, including major abortion funding and bailouts for state pension plans. Only 1 percent went to COVID vaccines. Dubbed the American Rescue Plan, the majority of individual stimulus checks went to citizens who have not lost their jobs or their incomes, while businesses, large and small, continue to shutter. The fact that 63 percent of the American public approve of this foolhardy bill, may be the last straw for the great American experiment.
Until the 1930s, Americans lived with a relatively small government. Since then, the size and scope have grown exponentially. While the 535 members of Congress have remained the same, the number of staff has mushroomed from the original authorization of 1 or 2 aides per member. Today, the average staff for a House member is 14, with a staggering 34 for a Senator. While the population nearly tripled from 122 million in 1930, to 332 million in 2020, Congressional staff skyrocketed by 700 percent.
For the first century and a half of our republic, there was also little direct aid provided to citizens by the federal government. By 2014, however, we may have reached the point of no return with more than half of all Americans receiving one form of benefit or another. This has significantly changed the dynamic of the government from protectors of rights to grantors of grift, giving the majority of citizens an active interest in guaranteeing that these benefits continue.
The regulatory (or administrative) state, often called the fourth branch of government, exploded following the New Deal in the 1930s. These unelected bureaucracies, granted by Congress, began creating their own legislation, enforcing their own laws, and doling out punishment from their own judges. Their power, which exists outside the bounds of the Constitution, is no deep-state conspiracy. It is a government working illegally within the legitimate government, completely unaccountable to the voting public. It’s a “heads I win, tails you lose” prospect for anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves targeted and then convicted by this governmental excess.
Attempts at influencing lawmaking for personal gain are not a new phenomenon in American politics. The business of lobbying has grown into a multi-billion-dollar scheme, with more than 10,000 registered lobbyists representing a myriad of associations, corporations, and special interest groups. By exchanging money for political access, these factions exist for the sole purpose of affecting policy. In economics, the results of lobbying are called concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. Each citizen is taxed a small amount, while huge benefits go exclusively to the special interest group. The inconvenience to the taxpayer is too small to notice, while the benefit to the favored group is enough to keep the ruse going. These deals have led to a steady flurry of regulations, taxes, and preferential treatment.
In Charles Murray’s 2015 book, “By the People”, Murray proposes resistance to the federal government for those illegitimate regulations and laws that have exceeded Constitutional limitations. Murray suggests challenging these overreaches with a civil disobedience fund underwritten by private sources to help individuals and businesses targeted with onerous fees and unnecessary costs. At no point does Murray suggest ignoring good laws that prosecute bad acts. The fund would only oppose unlawful legislation, with the express goal of using the legal system as a way to make these federal regulations unenforceable.
The Founders created the Constitution to limit the power of the federal government to those enumerated in the document. All other power would reside with the states and/or the people. This conception of the Constitution has been lost. The majority of expenditures and entanglements of the modern federal government are in obvious violation of the intention of the Founders.
We have no further obligation to pledge our allegiance to a government that has so severely overstepped its authority. With trust in government at record lows, the time to fight back is at hand. The Constitution provided the States with the tool of nullification to avoid federal overreach. There is no reason individuals and businesses cannot also create their own system of nullification, by simply refusing to comply.
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