Michael Farris:
Today, more than 2.5 million non-elected people work for our government, not counting military personnel. The workforce of the federal bureaucracy is responsible for thousands of tasks, taking in and distributing half a trillion dollars a year. In addition, the federal bureaucracy produces tens of thousands of pages of administrative orders and rules each and every year.

What’s wrong with this picture?

First of all, none of these bureaucrats have been elected by the people. Furthermore, federal bureaucratic agencies operate outside the check-and-balance systems our Founders worked so hard to create in the Constitution. A federal agency makes its own rules, executes its own rules, and even acts as judge of its own rules when they’re violated. There is no separation of power.

This has got to stop. One way to do this is to insist that no bureaucratic agency have the final ability to make any regulation. Congress should have to approve, and the president sign, any regulations before they become final. Then, if we don’t like them, we can vote to remove those in Congress who approved the regulations. Self-government demands that the people have the right to remove from office those responsible for trampling on our freedoms.

I’m Michael Farris.