Tennessee Center for Policy Research - Relax and Let Free Enterprise Work

My mother, rest her soul, used to say that no one should be able to pass a new law without repealing at least two old ones. Assuming each lawmaker in the country caused a net loss of one law/regulation/mandate/rule a week while their legislative body was in session, how many centuries would it take before American law became pared enough for one person to read the whole stack in one lifetime? Just asking.

(Oh, let's put a page limit on new laws, shall we, so they don't all become elephants? Or a word limit? Five thousand words max per bill work for you? One thousand? Or, better yet, give each legislator a lifetime limit, non-negotiable so he can't buy any column inches from his more restrained fellows. I like that idea.)

In the article linked above, Curt Leonard and Drew Johnson take a swing at some other ideas that might help. They offer some specifics, so check out the article, especially if you're from Tennessee. I have to say I like their attitude, anyway.

...Arguably, the worst thing about democracy is that elected leaders tend to believe they are responsible for a lot more than they really are. Like the little boy on his first plane trip “helping” the plane by flapping his arms as the Boeing 747 begins to ascend, legislators often seem to believe that somehow they run the economy and solve lots of problems.

In reality, government tends to muck up everything it touches. If a legislator is busy, it should be because he or she is busy repealing current laws and getting the state out of the people’s business....