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Oversight Deprives Us of Legislative Relief

Legislative relief begins with on-the-record votes for repeals and summary impeachments.

The new House of Representatives is proceeding with investigations of the coronavirus pandemic, of federal government weaponization against us, and of the Chinese Communist Party.

Legislative Oversight Defies the Constitution

At least oversight and investigations are better than passing more unconstitutional legislation, but they too are unconstitutional, and they whitewash other actions that are unconstitutional (and that are far worse).

Oversight and investigations defy the Constitution’s required separation of powers, which vests the executive power solely in presidents.

Legislators have done these things that they ought not to have done:

  • Legislators have asserted power to create organizational missions.
  • Legislators have asserted power to dictate organizational structures.
  • Legislators have not just set the overall budget, but also asserted that their line-item budget estimates have power over presidents’ actions.
  • Legislators have asserted power over hiring.
  • Legislators have asserted power over procedures.
  • Legislators have asserted power over firing.

Oversight and investigations treat unconstitutional administrative departments, agencies, and other organizations as legitimate.

Legislators have left undone these things that they ought to have done:

  • Senators haven’t taken the lead in drafting and revising treaties—which, after all, are supreme law.
  • Legislators haven’t passed rules-of-engagement cards.
  • Legislators haven’t deliberated and voted either to declare war or to not declare war, which in the latter case would stop wars from being initiated by our government.
  • Legislators haven’t repealed unconstitutional statutes.
  • Legislators haven’t passed most laws but instead have left most lawmaking to be done via regulations, guidance, administrative cases, threats, and the like.
  • Legislators haven’t summarily impeached government people who have clearly, on the public record, defied the Constitution.

Oversight and investigations on defense overlook that legislators haven’t enacted ROE cards, haven’t voted down declarations of war, and, more broadly, haven’t limited governments, which would allow economic growth that would lead enemy government people to not attack.

Legislative Relief Requires Repeals

The highly-trumpeted Church Committee on intelligence activities didn’t produce repeals of the agencies responsible, which increasingly deprive us of our freedoms now. Also, the Church Committee didn’t produce impeachments of any agency people or overseers. Besides, any given agency is just the tip of the iceberg of perhaps 434 agencies and many more cronies.

The United States Code, Code of Federal Regulations, and national case law are so imposing that reading through them full-time with no holidays would take 20 years.

Almost all this law, including the statutes, is unconstitutional. Nearly all violates the enumerated powers. Most all also violates the constitutional rule to not delegate legislative powers, or the constitutional rule to separate powers so that power will offset power to limit governments.

The power to overwhelm is the power to deprive.

Only legislators can give us repeals as relief from existing unconstitutional statutes. Only legislators can give us impeachments as relief from government people whose past Constitution-defiance shows that given the privilege of future employment, they would be more likely than not to deprive us of property, liberty, or life.

The most long-term freedom would come from these most-urgent seven national-legislative actions:

  1. Repeal legal tender laws.
  2. Make emergency power explicitly illegal.
  3. Make generics explicitly unrestricted.
  4. Make explicit that life begins at fertilization.
  5. Make immigration strictly merit-based.
  6. Repeal the DOJ, including the FBI.
  7. Repeal Ukraine support.

Even when urgent legislation can’t yet be enacted, the most important action by far is to use constitutional powers to force on-the-record votes. These votes will out the Progressives. Then the Progressives can be challenged, defeated, and replaced, and repeals can be enacted, as soon as possible.

Returning to the new House’s investigations, those pretend actions won’t deliver genuine legislative relief:

  • On the coronavirus pandemic, this investigation will saturate us with details but change nothing, effectively covering up plenty in plain sight—and in the process, carefully steering clear of examining past legislatures’ roles, and carefully steering clear of deliberating constitutional legislative relief.

    Genuine relief would come from urgent actions 2 and 3, making emergency power explicitly illegal and making generics explicitly unrestricted.

  • On federal government weaponization against us, genuine relief would come from urgent action 6, repealing the DOJ.
  • On the Chinese Communist Party, genuine relief would start with allowing us to strengthen ourselves economically. This would be accomplished by urgent actions 1 and 7, narrowly repealing legal tender laws and Ukraine support, and by more-broadly repealing the administrative state, starting with EPA and OSHA (and their counterparts in the states).

    Administrative agencies bypass the Constitution and the required republican form of government. They unconstitutionally deprive persons of liberty and property. They sideline the constitutional, effective use of torts to control deprivations, for example to control deprivations due to pollution.

Oversight and investigations position Progressives to sound good so they’ll be re-elected. This means that oversight and investigations deliver the exact opposite of relief.

Relief is spelled R-E-P-E-A-L-S.

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Free the People publishes opinion-based articles from contributing writers. The opinions and ideas expressed do not always reflect the opinions and ideas that Free the People endorses. We believe in free speech, and in providing a platform for open dialog. Feel free to leave a comment!

James Anthony

James Anthony is an experienced chemical engineer who applies process design, dynamics, and control to government processes. He is the author of The Constitution Needs a Good Party and rConstitution Papers, the publisher of rConstitution.us, and an author in Daily Caller, The Federalist, American Thinker, American Greatness, Mises Institute, and Foundation for Economic Education. For more information, see his media and about pages.

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