As reported today at the Hill, “171 House-passed bills are sitting in the Senate,” including forty “job-creation bills.” Here is an excerpt:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has set up a website that details each of the House-cleared bills. The site states that President Obama has signed 75 bills into law while 171 are ‘stuck in the Senate…’ Within the last week, Cantor created a “to do” list for bills that have received bipartisan support with more than 250 House votes.
A Democratic “aide” however, blew off the initiative to bring these bills to the attention of the public, saying that the bills passed by Democrats and Republicans in the House were “political-message bills.” Not surprisingly, the aide did not give examples. In the “new normal,” Democrats people can make all sorts of statements without having to back them up with facts. The tired charge of “racism” comes to mind. Or how about Harry Reid’s claim that the Tea Party wants NO government? As reported at Liberty Unyielding, Reid said of the Tea Party in part,
“A bad day for government is a good day for the anarchists among us, those who believe in no—I repeat, no—government. That is their belief.”
A quick perusal of any Tea Party website would illustrate that the Tea Party favors “limited government,” as intended by America’s founding fathers. And here is a novel question:
Why is it that passing legislation is the gauge for an effective Congress?
One example that comes to mind is immigration. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan passed immigration reform legislation. The problem was that the law was not followed. From GOPUSA:
“But while the legalization effort yielded results — about 2.7 million immigrants were granted permanent residency under the law — the promise of tougher border enforcement went unrealized because of a lack of funding and staffing. The threat of a crackdown against employers who knowingly hired illegal workers never materialized because political compromises weakened the employer sanctions and because widespread fraud enabled companies to keep hiring illegal immigrants.” [Emphasis added]
Why is it that Reagan’s legislation is not being updated? Or repealed? This author is no fan of House Majority Leader John Boehner. However, he was roundly mocked when he said this in July:
“We should not be judged by how many new laws we create,” he explained, “we ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal. We’ve got more laws than the administration could ever enforce.”
The legitimately creepy senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer mocked Boehner on Twitter:
Did Speaker Boehner really say that the Congress should be judged on the number of laws they repeal not the number they pass? — Dan Pfeiffer (@pfeiffer44) July 21, 2013
John Boehner, in this case, was absolutely correct. How many laws are reviewed and repealed? Or does the Federal government just keep piling on new laws? And really, does it matter? After all, laws in the form of “regulations” are being passed at lightning speed. The photo on this post came from Senator Mike Lee’s Facebook page (and only half of the cabinet is shown). Sen. Lee explains:
“Behold my display of the 2013 Federal Register. It contains over 80,000 pages of new rules, regulations, and notices all written and passed by unelected bureaucrats. The small stack of papers on top of the display are the laws passed by elected members of Congress and signed into law by the president.”
It seems to this author that America has evolved into accepting regulations in lieu of laws. And as Senator Lee points out, they are “all written and passed by unelected bureaucrats.” Why is this acceptable?
