The REPEAL Act

Imagine your lawmakers and regulators taking a holiday from their endless additions to the Federal Register, and devoting some time to actually removing laws, regulations, and programs that aren't useful, working as intended, or consistent with the nation's core principles?

Imagine the drafting of a piece of legislature - call it the REPEAL (Remove Excessive, Politically-motivated, Extraneous, and Arbitrary Laws) Act.

Imagine a great purge of clutter, waste, redundancy, conflict, inefficiency, uselessness, and rights-violations. Who here would not applaud, vigorously and on one's feet, such an effort?

Oh, wait, I know who:

The power-hungry.

The rent-seekers.

The public service careerists.

The aggressive prosecutors.

The fief builders.

The cynical oppressors.

The control freaks.

The political preeners.

and

All those who'd abdicate responsibility to the political class.

What do all these non-applauders have in common?

They don't give a [redacted] about your rights and mine, not when those rights get in the way of their selfishness. Writing laws that apply to others is what they're all about.

Does there ever come a time when we have enough laws?

As I quoted just last week,

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. - James Madison