Another Government Dustup

There was a rumor flying around the agricultural community (that would be farming community) that the Federal EPA was implementing a new set of rules and regulations governing “dust.” It was speculated that the new guidelines would negatively and severely impact production agriculture and ancillary vendor and service industries. Following the outcry that reverberated through the U.S. agricultural sector, various elected officials, Cabinet Secretaries, agency directors and bureaucrats scrambled to deny that such action had ever been under consideration. Congress responded by passing H.R. 1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011. Just what does it suggest for the future of our liberty and our Republic when the “people’s” Congress must pass national legislation forbidding the bureaucracy from rule making and regulating………common barnyard dust?

Based on my personal research I can find no constitutional mandate, allowance or justification for the federal government to dictate the allowable content and volume of farm dust. If the right exists, why didn’t the Congress and bureaucracies control the infamous and deadly Dust Bowl of the 1930’s? Despite the inefficiencies of wind power, our government still has not yet learned the lesson that humans do NOT control the wind. Attempting to regulate dust in rural areas (and urban ones as well) would be a futile exercise because of the vagaries of the wind and air patterns. If the EPA were to sample the dust particulate on my small property in Northwest Ohio, how could they positively prove that it was produced on my property, drifted from an Indiana neighbor, was airborne from the Province of Ontario across Lake Erie before settling on my little plot, or was agitated by my grandson playing with his little toy truck in the back yard? They can’t, but the very existence of the offending particles on my land could make me subject to fines and restrictions. This is not merely stupid government policy but it is also an insane government attempt to control something that cannot be controlled. What next? Regulate sunlight?

Now, I know the political class and their political appointees have disavowed any prospect of implementing such an irrational regulatory scheme. That’s why I’m nervous. Bureaucrats propose oppressive rules and politicians go along with them unless the public angrily reacts. Some bad-dresser with road kill breath sitting in an 8x8 cubicle has come up with this ingenious idea for controlling all the air on the globe to benefit people with respiratory problems. As the memo worked its way up the chain of command, the rumors started and the Big Dogs could deny the idiocy before it had been presented for hearings and public review. The lunacy of the idea and the speed with which the President, the EPA and the USDA scuttled the plan….proves to me that it is lurking in the bowels of the bureaucracy waiting to be attached as an insignificant amendment to a little-noticed bill. It will lay there….festering and molding….becoming more toxic each and every moment until some shaker and mover in the government decides that independent-thinking farmers and small-town businesses need to be taught a lesson.

Our government is broken. It is too big to be effective and efficient. It is similar to a 500 pound man with size 3 feet. It is wobbly and tottering, but if and when it falls, it will be devastating. Despite corruption and incompetency the government continues to hum along by inserting itself into every imaginable human endeavor….denying our liberty and diminishing our prosperity. As its failing systems clatter and fall, the bureaucracy and the politicians march on creating new barriers to freedom. The pace of the governments’ grabs for power will accelerate as the apparatus is crumbling. Just as a drowning man will clutch a straw the gasping bloated tyrannical mass will lash out with silly rule after stupid regulation in attempt to maintain its power and control.

Penalties will grow stiffer and fines will be larger as they seek to hold the trembling reins of power. Police powers will be enhanced as a “preventative measure” to protect the citizens from the potential of discontented mobs. For example: Assume that government decided that seatbelts in automobiles would enhance motorist safety. They encouraged auto makers to include them as optional equipment and ran numerous public information campaigns to encourage their use. Many people ignored the slick PR efforts and didn’t wear their safety belts. Governments decided to mandate use of the belts, but motorists could not be stopped for failing to have theirs buckled. If, however, they were pulled over for another violation and were observed without the seatbelt connected, they could then be cited for failing to fully engage the device. Nevertheless…many drivers and passengers continued to ignore the seatbelt requirement so the governments responded the way governments always do………

If you live in a rural area, you may wish to consider investing in a complex sprinkler system for your property. You know….to minimize the dust. Be careful….your property might become a designated wetland.

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Forever and Longer

A significant portion of television advertising seems directed toward viewers who lust for immortality. Fitness clubs, magic weight removers or body buffers, life-extending bio supplements, and all types of safety enhancements for other products seem to suggest that many Americans are obsessed with living longer. While this thirst for eternal earthly life is good for commerce, I find at times that it makes me uneasy. Personally I’m aware of only one path to eternal life, and it does not involve Chuck Norris, Suzanne Somers, or Doctor “what’s-his-name.” When we read 1 Corinthians 15:55, we are led by Paul to consider that eternity in Glory is preferable to a lifelong search for terrestrial immortality. Daily life is not “a bowl of cherries” yet some people seem to cling to life until their fingers bleed….which brings me to laws, rules and regulations. They rarely die. They cling to life more tenaciously than any human or critter ever has. Like vampires, they are blood sucking and immortal.

Legislative enactments from Big Brother break more hearts than psoriasis. Bureaucratic rules outlast the half-life of Plutonium-239 (24,000+ years). Government regulations are more enduring than fruitcake. It is easier to pummel the wind than it is to end a nonsensical government enactment or pronouncement. It appears that so many of our citizens have become comfortable with the Nanny State that their efforts for unending life mirror the strings or laws their puppet masters have given them. Persistence is an attribute that should be celebrated, but when government persistently seeks to increase control, and citizens persistently cling to dependence, it’s a formula for ultimate collapse and disaster. Added to the insanity of never-ending rules, regs and laws is that phenomenon of government “reform.” They merely tweak the existing laws and add more to them to compound the confusion and …. control.

Government involvement in any aspect of our lives is similar to an irritating rash that will not go away. It annoys, distracts and undermines the productivity of the patient to the point of giving up on searching for a radical remedy. It’s when the patient cannot conceive of a workable remedy that he or she surrenders….loses hope. As the Nanny State and Big Brother continue to surround us with their web of laws and regulations, our freedom and mobility are restricted. Our maneuvering space becomes smaller and smaller as we seek the means for self expression and individual liberty. After a time the web becomes a cocoon and we are tightly encased in all-encompassing benevolent strands of government. We cannot move, and we cease trying.

Although I have never been a behavioral therapist or counselor, it seems to me that the longer an addictive behavior is practiced, the more difficult it is to escape it. Alcoholics Anonymous reminds its members that they are NOT former alcoholics, but they will ALWAYS be alcoholics. The drinking and the consequences of alcoholism may cease, but the desire for a drink will continue until death. I have spoken with former smokers who have remarked that more than two decades after quitting, they still wanted a cigarette. Rarely have I met someone who claimed that ending an addictive behavior was easy. On the contrary most recovering addicts are painfully aware of how difficult it is to stop engaging in an addictive behavior. So it is with governments’ addictions for power and control and our addictions for entitlements and benefits.

As governments weave their tapestries of laws on top of rules and across regulations, we are spellbound by the beauty and glory of the design while the expanding fabric becomes tighter and tighter with each new thread. Like a child in bed on a cold and frosty winter morning, we are reluctant to arise when Freedom calls to make our way through the cold reality of life. We prefer the warmth and comfort of the covers to the harsh brutality beyond. We burrow deeper under the governments’ tapestries while trying to ignore the cold outside.

Each thread the government weaves becomes a string for control. Each new law is another thread….another line to power. Each new rule intersects with others to form an inescapable structure. Every new regulation is a knot that strengthens the fabric beyond our abilities to break free. Each one…no matter how small, how insignificant or how ludicrous…each new rule erodes our liberty and enhances the power of the government. Each and every one. Our Liberty, an inalienable right, is being rapidly transformed into a forfeited right….a former right….an historical footnote…..a distant dream.

Laws, rules and regulations are forever. Oh certainly we get rid of a couple now and then but replace them with something more onerous. If our candidates for office refuse to acknowledge the supremacy of individual liberty as the bedrock principle of our nation, then at the very least we should be able to get them to understand the suffocating nature of our innumerable legal mechanisms for controlling public behavior….and limiting our prosperity. If the candidate is unwilling to pledge not to vote for passage of any more noxious laws, then perhaps his or her vocational choices should be limited to “road apple” duty following parades. I’m tired of egocentric know-it-alls taking my freedom. I’m sick of behaving like a willing stooge. I’m sick and tired.

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Laws and Responsibility

Back in the day when I served in the state legislature, I often remarked in my speeches that the six most dangerous words in Ohio are “there ought to be a law…” We are over-lawed (new word?). In other words we have too many laws. What we need are accountability and responsibility. If you hurt someone or their property because you were negligent or intentionally destructive, then you should be held accountable. As an example, if you’re texting, drinking or under the influence of prescription drugs and you crash into another car, you should be charged with negligence and failure to maintain control.

Why is it necessary to have traffic laws that ban driving while drinking, driving while texting or any number of potential distractions or performance degraders? If they are necessary, we should include driving while drinking coffee or eating. We might also include shaving or applying makeup as tasks that should be prohibited while one is operating a motor vehicle. There are even more activities that could or should be banned while driving such as reading, talking to a passenger, adjusting the radio or CD player, or picking one’s nose. I have witnessed every one of these distracting behaviors while driving. It isn’t pretty out there, folks.

Obviously as the clever readers you are, you have discerned that I am disturbed by the proliferation of laws that our legislators and regulators have thrust upon us. It is a common practice among despotic or totalitarian governments to pass numerous laws so that nearly every citizen breaks some of them and then selectively enforce them. This bi-polar approach causes the populace to be fretful and fearful but allows the leaders to dole out favorable treatment for friendly elites. For example you may be charged for munching on an Egg McMuffin while pursuing your morning commute, but the police may have strict orders to ignore the Assistant to the Associate Deputy Secretary of Secretarial Assistants when she rabidly consumes a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats while scampering down the freeway at 20 mph above the legal limit. Lots of laws create a maze of regulatory tape that is impossible to navigate without violating one or more of them…that is “soft tyranny.” The government doesn’t throw you in the clink for no reason, but they do create a multitude of trip wires to legitimize your incarceration.

Paranoia is not a typical condition for me, but the profusion of laws, rules and regulations that impact our behavior, our commerce and our daily lives have caused me to become extremely skeptical about our government’s commitment to individual liberty. For now…if we violate a number of the “gotcha” regulations, we are fined. If enough people systematically fail to follow the proscribed rules, it seems probable that harsher penalties may be employed. There are so many fronts where Big Government is attacking the people that this one may seem trivial, but it can lead to hard tyranny as the government and its big-government supporters and enablers seek to wield control---for our own good….of course.

Too many laws lead to confusion, so why not streamline the criminal code to identify the broad categories of unacceptable activity. The penalties, if any, could be based on outcomes rather than law enforcement personnel seeking to interdict every potential violator. If you drive and you harm someone or their property while negligently distracted, you must pay restitution, fines and jail time if appropriate for the offense and the damage. It shouldn’t matter what activity led to the negligent distraction. It’s the result of the negligence that generates the penalty. As someone who cherishes my liberty, I resent the nitpicking package of laws and regulations that have invaded our lives. As someone who believes strongly in accountability and responsibility as necessary for citizenship, my resistance to the plethora of controlling rules grows greater every day. The Nanny State mentality has drifted from our social welfare policies into law enforcement. It sickens me.

It has been thirty years since I first began uttering the line about “there ought to be a law.” Given the nature of our ineffective, inefficient and dominating government today, those six words may not be the worst…the most evil. They are still noxious and still toxic. We have too many laws. We have too many constraints on our freedom. We must be responsible for our actions, our behavior and our stupidity. When the law becomes too complex, it can become abusive. Liberal progressive socialist busybodies love laws because they narrow the parameters of our liberty. The lefties assume that we are too stupid to live without the benign intervention of the government. They do not yet realize that we may be too angry to live with it.

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Transfering Wealth

The lefties of our nation and the globe as well, insist that “fairness” can only be achieved by transferring wealth from the “haves” to the “have-nots.” As one can expect from most socialist reasoning (an oxymoron…emphasis on MORON), the holes in their policy are massive. Bernie Madoff sits in a jail cell as police, prosecutors, and plaintiff’s attorneys confiscate every remnant of his former ill-gained fortune. Now he appears to be broke. Should someone be required to share their wealth with the former prince of ponzi? I suspect that when we speak of transferring wealth from the “richer” to the “poorer,” we are in reality discussing transferring earned wealth from producers to socialist-voting looters. A person’s “right” to the wealth of others is determined by her or his likelihood of voting a certain way.

Transferring wealth is more complex than merely dropping a dollar into the bucket of a curbside beggar. The various governments, non-government agencies (NGA’s), non-profits, churches and other elements of the society employ a number of coercive devices to generate wealth-sharing. First, there is the direct tax, direct payment method. Welfare, Social security, Medicaid and Food Stamps are the most brazen examples. Some transfers are more indirect. They might include tax credits for munchkins (children), subsidies for behaviors (education) and massive industry and corporate subsidies or tax breaks. Straight forward foreign aid is direct. Sweet trade deals for preferred countries are an indirect form of the share the wealth mentality.

The transfer of wealth may also involve some subtlety (or sneakiness, if you prefer). Laws that include certain prohibitions may create a competitive advantage for one or another industry or company. For example, when I served in the legislature, there was a representative who introduced an absolutely devastating axle tax for the trucking industry. And….he introduced a similar bill every session…year after year. As I fielded the calls from truckers in my district and notes from lobbyists representing independent truckers, I sought to discover why he would introduce such a job-killing piece of   legislation. My older colleagues informed me that the offending representative was “in the pocket” of the railroads. No one took his legislation seriously, and it would not go anywhere, but just like biennial elections, he introduced it every session to earn his campaign check. When those pieces of legislation are taken seriously and passed, then a law-induced transfer of wealth is the result. Wait, there’s more.

Nearly every regulatory initiative passed by nearly every legislative body or agency impacts some industries more than others…a subtle transfer of wealth. Within given industries some companies may be more adversely affected than their competitors by new rules because of their size, location or any number of intervening factors….in essence a transfer of wealth because compliance costs are not fairly assessed. The great dream of the socialist agenda, ObamaCare, is the epitome of a wealth transfer mechanism at every level. The more than one thousand, one hundred (1,100) waivers granted so far to corporations and labor unions with the “correct” political leanings is the epitome of an indirect and sometimes subtle transfer of wealth. As you can detect, wealth transfers involve much more than simply “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” They also include subsidizing Paul and giving him tax breaks. They may involve regulating Peter at a much greater level than Paul so that Paul gains a competitive advantage. Think of coal, oil and natural gas rules and regulations versus the subsidy packages for wind power, solar systems, and bio-fuels. And yet…the “green” technologies are not competitive on the open energy market.

Licensing and registrations are another form of wealth transfer that operates outside the public view. In my early days as a broadcaster, there were no licensing fees for stations to operate once they had paid the initial start-up licensing amounts. Now stations must pay annual fees based upon their transmitter power, their markets and their gross revenues. In other words the more successful stations must pay a penalty for their efforts while the ones that are not so successful get by with lower fees. Stations that have made the effort to attract topnotch on-air talent and hire competent sales people must subsidize the regulatory administrative costs for less popular stations.

Transferring wealth by force is how the government functions. Government by its very nature is the definition of force. In a world where liberty reigns, wealth would be transferred unfettered by government coercion. A series of voluntary transactions wherein quality, productivity and service would thrive is the model for free commerce. While government stacks the deck and enforces its preferences, wealth is transferred….and we’re all much poorer and less free.

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Government-mandated Outsourcing

In February it was announced that Deutsche Boerse had agreed in principle to purchase the New York Stock Exchange (Euronext) for $10 billion. With the purchase, the German company would become the largest exchange operator in the world. Politicians and the financial community lauded the proposed deal as one of great opportunity for expanding markets. In response Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. joined with Intercontinental Exchange Inc. to offer a competing bid for the NYSE. While the New York entity was considering the offers…one from Germany and the other primarily U.S. based…the federal government sprang into action.

Even though the final offer from the domestic Nasdaq group was sweeter than the original offer of the German concern, the NYSE rejected the proposal from the American suitors. Although they stated a primary reason was that the prospect of being a part of the largest exchange in the world intrigued them, concern was also expressed about the monopoly aspects of a merger with the other U.S. company. In other words, there were reservations about whether or not the United States’ Federal Government would initiate anti-trust action against the merger. Government regulations and the potential for heavy-handed litigation were influential in the final decision to sell the NYSE to a foreign entity. This little scenario is emblematic of the legal and regulatory environment in our country today and may be a significant indicator for the reasons some companies may choose to relocate their headquarters offshore.

The NYSE-Nasdaq kabuki dance is a reminder of the effect that government power has on businesses. Just the threat of government action may alter the decision-making process for a company. That could be a good thing if the corporation were intending to engage in harmful or radically unsafe practices. The other side is that subjective or arbitrary regulating may lead companies to become timid or frustrated. We can see evidence of that in the distribution of waivers for “Obamacare.” Friends, contributors and supporters receive favorable treatment while the remainder of the nation is expected to comply with the thousands of arcane rules and mandates. Big government holds the power to subjectively enforce its many rules. For a serious business operation this milieu may be intolerable because it is nearly impossible to successfully forecast and plan when the rules are implemented in a whimsical fashion.

Even if government were to enforce a given law uniformly, the businesses involved will always suspect that, at some point, the rules will change or enforcement would be unevenly practiced. The weakness of big government regulatory mechanisms should be readily apparent. In many countries and cultures bribery and corruption are the best method for companies to avoid getting lost in the regulatory maze. It is possible for smaller government to be corrupt, but because of its limited influence on the marketplace, the corruption may not have much of an impact in the marketplace. Most people and businesses seek stability. They may prefer consistent corruption to an unevenly enforced regulatory environment.

The proliferation of new rules, laws and regulations have generated a marketplace that finds its workers treading on eggshells. Government enforcers at every level appear to be constantly prowling for violations, real and imagined. Laws and regulations are unevenly enforced from sector to sector, business to business, and region to region. Bureaucrats have assumed the power (or it has been given to them) to transform vaguely-worded, over-arching legislation and molding the result into an unending series of nitpicking, nonsensical requirements. Despite the insanity of the rules, business must comply or be fined………………or relocate. Now add unrealistic union workplace rules to the bureaucratic morass and one wonders why any businesses remain here.

Fear is often as lethal as force. Fear is a prime motivator for behavior modification. In other words, fear of punishment or fear of retribution may cause you or a business to act in ways that are not in your best interests. In a democratic republic the people should not fear the government, but the government should fear the people (credit and kudos to Thomas Jefferson and “V for Vendetta”). When we fear the government more than it fears us, it is time for reordering our priorities….time to restructure the way things are.

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