By “Matt Lewis & The News” guest blogger Jason Mattera
…said no one ever.
Around the same time that I received my advance copy of Mark Levin’s thought-provoking new book, The Liberty Amendments, I came across two reports that served to validate his central premise: It’s time to bypass Congress and instead use state legislatures as the vehicle to retract the sprawling, unconstitutional, and hellish bureaucracy that is the federal government today.
One report came courtesy of the Mercatus Center, which has informed us that our “public servants” at the Department of Energy will restrict our options when purchasing… microwaves. The reasoning was that you and I buy microwave ovens irrationally, forgoing the more energy efficient units, which are more expensive, and settling rather for the cheaper but more robust versions.
Displeased with our choice of kitchen appliances, the bureaucrats at the Department of Energy will now make the decision for us.
Then came a Heritage Foundation brief detailing the regulatory costs imposed on restaurants that are now mandated — by way of Obamacare — to display the caloric content of the food they serve, as though we’re unaware that a trip to Five Guys may be more brutal on the waistline than a pit stop at Whole Foods. The compliance cost is expected to run north of $500 million in the first year alone.
That’s $500 million that could be going toward more hires, increased wages, renovations, new locations… but no — instead that money is wasted fulfilling the imperial demands of Washington, D.C.
Are not the regulations being slapped on microwaves and menus not a snapshot of just how carried away our government is?
As Levin writes in The Liberty Amendments, “the question is not what the federal government regulates, but what it does not?”
“It is the nation’s largest creditor, debtor, lender, employer, consumer, contractor, grantor, property owner, tenant, insurer, health-care provider, and pension guarantor.”
In fact, as Levin points out, the government’s size and scope is so vast that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) was unable to identify the number of criminal penalties attached to all the rules and regulations being issued.
But the CRS did take a crack at the number: Tens of thousands was their tally.
Thanks, guys. Glad we cleared that one up.
As if the cluelessness weren’t bad enough, the economic burden alone for these regulations clock in at nearly $2 trillion a year. Put another way, the monetary costs of the current regulatory state is on par, if not greater, than the amount of revenue brought in each year by taxation.
Let that one sink in.
Which brings us back to The Liberty Amendments. Levin proposes that state legislatures assemble a convention for the purpose of offering amendments to the Constitution, a process allowed under Article V.
It’s using the Constitution to save the Constitution, he says.
“Rather than just talk about [the increasingly powerful centralized government], I decided to take a careful look at what we might do about it,” Levin told me. And those action items are presented in a series of complimentary amendments, ranging from term limits on politicians and Supreme Court justices to capping a person’s income tax liability at 15 percent.
In fact, on the tax amendment, there’s one section that, if ever adopted, could obliterate the electoral chances of liberal politicians overnight.
It reads: “The deadline for filing federal income tax returns shall be the day before the date set for elections to federal office.”
You write a fat check to Uncle Sam and then the next day you go vote.
“The reality of what these politicians have done, or what they are promising to do, are fresh in our minds when we vote rather than their utopian promises,” Levin explains.
He does acknowledge that the recourse he favors is difficult, even daunting, but that a tough battle ahead is not grounds for surrender.
“It has taken the progressive movement – the statists – 100 years to bring us to this point. And they don’t intend to stop.”
He urges conservatives to remain optimistic, aspirational, and fight through the prism of a “short-term, mid-term, and long-term political battle.”
Jason Mattera is the New York Times bestselling author of Hollywood Hypocrites and Obama Zombies as well as a radio host with legendary 77 WABC in NYC. His website is www.JasonMattera.com, where he offers a free e-book, 7 Ways To Make A Liberal Cry Like A Little Girl.