Charles Murray On OVER Regulation and Big Government

“As government regulations grow slowly, we become used to the harness. Habit is a powerful force, and we no longer feel as intensely as we once would have [the] constriction of our liberties that would have been utterly intolerable a mere half century ago.” ~ Judge Robert Bork

This is the first segment from an interview with Charles Murray on his new book, “By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission.”

This segment reminded me of a quote I have kept for years, and while I am not the biggest fan of the author of it… but this quote and topic is instructive:

This is most evident in the fact that Americans today must obey thirty times as many laws as their great-grandfathers had to obey at the turn of the century. Federal agencies publish an average of over 200 pages of new rulings, regulations, and proposals in the Federal Register each business day. That growth of the federal statute book is one of the clearest measures of the increase of the government control of the citizenry…

James Bovard, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (St. Martins Griffen; 1994), p. 1.

I fear this will be, not following the many laws by choice, the only route Americans [who hold to the Founding principles of this country] will have to do. Acting by disobeying.

Red Tape and Business/Job Growth (Heritage Foundation)

Federal agencies publish an average of over 200 pages of new rulings, regulations, and proposals in the Federal Register each business day. That growth of the federal statute book is one of the clearest measures of the increase of the government control of the citizenry (James Bovard, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty [St. Martins Griffen; 1994], p. 1.)