With tens of thousands of U.S. federal laws — added to the countless state laws — it’s no wonder America is a legal and political morass.
When a country has too many laws, an unwieldy legislative burden, it retards economic growth, slows innovation, confuses citizens, and undermines the effectiveness and productivity of those laws. Such a situation exists in America today.
For example, the Empire State Building was built in a single year. Try getting the necessary permits, complying with the required regulations, and getting enough union cooperation to accomplish such a feat now. Meanwhile, too many government agencies are turning into the Circumlocution Office:
As of 2022, the Scientific Data website had compiled 49,746 American federal laws. No one person could possibly memorize all those, and of course some of them are contradictory, and many unnecessary. Many congressmen and judges seem as if they haven’t read the Constitution, let alone 49,000+ other laws. Our legislative system has become so massive and burdensome that it is completely out of control.
Founding Father James Madison, who died on June 28, 1836, warned us about over-legislating. “The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself,” Madison said.
Electing representatives who pass too many laws can threaten our republic, Madison cautioned. “It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before they are promulg[at]ed, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow,” he said.
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Part of the issue is that the federal government has expanded into and taken over many areas where it constitutionally cannot and certainly should not be — for instance, healthcare and education. There are very few functions a federal government can carry out more efficiently than the private sector or local governments, and a too-powerful federal government threatens liberty and prosperity, which is why the Founders carefully limited the government in our Constitution. If only we had followed their plan.
This is why it’s so tremendously important that Donald Trump and Congress work to shut down useless government agencies, slash spending, and cut regulations. We the People need to remind our elected representatives how dangerous over-legislation is, and how vitally important is reform.
We should recapture the patriotism and determination that inspired Ronald Reagan when he said, “I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose. We have come together here because the American people deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nations highest offices, and we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.” We the People stand united. We will stop those eroding our national will and purpose.
