The Challenge Of Restraining Government by Robert Socha

It is high time for Congress to limit itself. Too many charlatans have made a career out of lawmaking to the detriment of Constitutionality. They have absolved themselves of their duty to enact law by contriving extra-constitutional agencies and allowing these entities to impose and enforce regulations beyond the electorate’s accountability. Additionally, they have voted for themselves higher and higher salaries, insider trading, and emoluments that would land the average citizen in jail. Congress should never have morphed into a career path. Instead, it should remain an institution served by virtuous men with impeccable character, morality, and selflessness who aim to perpetuate self-government.

Consider how many capable Californians could have filled Nancy Pelosi’s seat had she stepped down after only five terms or if she had not duped her constituents into ignorantly reelecting her repeatedly. Her mannerisms and speech ooze deception and trickery because the seductive lure of power and vainglory has consumed her soul. How would these hypothetical politicians have governed differently? Instead, she is in her 19th consecutive term, having held that seat for almost 37 years, and isn’t even among the 40 longest-serving House members! If you consider the Senate, too, she ranks 93rd!

Even if the legislature decided to impose such limitations, the insidious growth of government, whose tentacles invasively reach into every aspect of life, has grown into an uncontrollable behemoth charging forward like the unrestrained Lehman Brothers providing adjustable-rate mortgages to strippers and pimps whose only income verification for the ability to repay is a statement that they work for Enron.

These overreaching impositions have even clawed their way into smaller local entities aiming to maintain a clean and safe community for people to live and conduct commerce. Unfortunately, some people disregard their neighbors so much and live such unprincipled lives that municipal governments are duty-bound to preserve their community’s integrity. Consider, for a moment, your preference for an evening stroll: first, a nicely manicured street whose civic pride is evident in tidy homes where children’s laughter and mom’s fresh baked pies invite your senses to dance with delight; second, a street whose dilapidated houses have broken down cars on the lawn and stale marijuana protruding from broken glass. The choice here is clear. Beauty and cleanliness inspire the human condition and provide hope for a bright future. How can a community maintain this atmosphere if the citizenry isn’t willing to keep their property pleasant voluntarily? They must impose regulations to maintain acceptable standards, or the law of broken glass will inevitably collapse society into a cesspool of crime and punishment.

Herein lies the inevitable challenge of restraining the government to submit to its proper role. The trickle-down inflation due to Congress allowing the Fed to print money as if it has value outside of blind faith causes smaller entities to rely on grants and subsidies to maintain their ever-tightening budgets. This entrenched self-perpetuating cycle makes clawing our way back to solvency appear impossible, and the inevitable slide to a despotic single currency where every transaction can be tracked and verified is charging forward at ludicrous speed.

What are we to do? What can any one of us do? We can call on Congress to limit their obligations: first to service time, second to fiduciary accountability, and third to legislative oversight of extra-constitutional agencies and burdensome taxes. Preferably, we can reignite neighborhood communities and camaraderie with pride and dignity through relationships and engagement, causing civic pride to bleed an invitation to come, giving local and national legislatures pause to rescind over-taxation and begin the return of self-rule and dignity to the people.