“The administrative state,” Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts declared in front of the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, “is the greatest threat to democracy in the United States, and we need to end it.” He’s absolutely right.
As conservatives, if we’re serious about re-constitutionalizing our system of government, the next administration must make slashing both the scope and scale of the executive branch — the citadel of the administrative state — its highest priority. If we fail in that objective, any and all wins we secure the next time we win at the ballot box will be erased by the next Democrat administration. It will happen immediately and by executive order and other means, as it did virtually on the first day of the Biden administration.
Out of concern for second- and third-order consequences, I’m typically wary to recommend “silver bullets” when it comes to policies for addressing national issues. But I believe that chopping down the administrative state is as close to a swift and enduring fix as we’ll have for righting the ship of state.
Ruled by Regulation
Most Americans believe that legislation passed by Congress is what has screwed up our daily lives, from education to health care to the exorbitant price of gasoline to the outrageous cost of groceries. That’s not surprising, because we’re taught in middle school and high school that the legislative branch makes the “laws” that govern the nation. Yet it’s even less
