Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
This week's Ricochet podcast also got me thinking -- what a good idea the 1994 Contract with America Congress had with repeal day. On that day, Congress would repeal, not pass laws. I always thought it should be a week, not a day. Unfortunately, not much came of it -- once there, the new majority became less interested in shrinking government.
But suppose the next Congress, pushed on by the Tea Party, took the idea of shrinking government seriously. What would be the worst laws on the books to repeal? Which laws have the worst cost-benefit ratio? Can the Ricochet network of decentralized but collective wisdom come up with a list? Here are some of the candidates culled from other posts:
1. Obamacare
2. Stimuli
3. TARP
4. ADA?
5. Ethanol subsidy?
6. Mortgage deduction?
7. ????
8. ????
9. ????
10. ????
Can Ricochet members fill out the Top 10?
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Jul '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
#7 Department of Education, lets put the power to run schools back in the hands of the communities that they serve.
Jun '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
I'm with Eugene. "No Child Left Behind" can be repealed. The Dept of Education can be defunded.
Jul '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
As a special educator who has had to deal with the idiocy of No Child left behind I can not tell you how much I wish the Department of Education would be left behind. In 1971 we began writing Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) for our students. In those days the document was one page. Today my average IEP is 23 to 25 pages long and has an multiplicity of absurdities which must be included to meet current federal guidelines. We are forced to attend yearly, full day seminars to learn the new garbage that has been added, the wording which must be included, and any new irrelevancy dreamed up by a bureaucrat who hasn't been in a classroom since graduation.
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
It would be wonderful if they took the idea of shrinking government seriously. But is it possible? I don't think so. It seems it is impossible to get even Republicans to sign a petition to repeal ObamaCare: "The discharge petition, introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), has so far garnered 153 of the 218 signatures required to bring repeal to the floor."
Does anyone know of a link listing which representatives have signed the petition and which representatives still need to hear from their constituents?
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
7. Dept. of Education
8. HHS (Socialized medicine would be tough without the bureaucracy)
9. Social Security (some sort of pahese out). I'm 36 and I've been telling people since I was in high school that I never expect to see a dime of my SS contribution.
10. Medicare (Again, a phase out)
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
I think there is something to be said for an entire platform based on repeal. Talk about the party of no! I joke about running for office on the "Ron Paul platform" (I know he's a kook). Vote against everything, unless it's repealing some silly law or de-funding some bloated government agency!
Jul '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
As fun as this is, and as much as I agree with the repeal candidates listed, I kind of agee with Ryan.
As long as our collective attitude toward the role of government is that it exists to take care of us and give us stuff, we can repeal the entire list, and it will have no essential impact We are dangerously close to - if not past - the Tocquevillian tipping point.
Our problems are structural, and our solution must also be. I think we would stand a better chance of staving off disaster if we focus on amending the Constitution. Limit federal government spending to 20% of GDP, and require a supermajority to raise taxes. Do that, and we won't have a list to worry about.
Jul '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Farm subsidies!
Jun '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Any contributions to the UN.
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Here are some candidates:
- The Family Medical Leave Act, excepting the maternity/paternity leave provisions.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1991.
- The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
- Anything that's left of McCain-Feingold.
Jun '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Eugene Kriegsmann
"As a special educator who has had to deal with the idiocy of No Child left behind I can not tell you how much I wish the Department of Education would be left behind. In 1971 we began writing Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) for our students. In those days the document was one page. Today my average IEP is 23 to 25 pages long."
As a regular classroom teacher I know exactly what you go through. SPED teachers at my school spend so much time on paperwork that they have time to teach maybe one or two remedial classes during the day. In addition, special education law has generated an entire new class of entrepreneurial lawyers. We call them school bus chasers.
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
1) The farm program- kill the whole thing, start over
2) The Current Services Baseline
3) Federal Direct college loans
4) Section 8 as it is currently structured
5) Federal Aid to Education (replace with vouchers)
6) All Congressional staff budgets and privileges
Jul '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Seattle Public Schools Special Ed Department now has nearly as many mid level administrators as they have teachers in the classroom. Lawyers, consultants, specialists. Special Education is a great money pig that is sucking off incredible amounts of money that never benefits the kids one bit. That's your government working for you.
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
1) The 1962 Kefauver-Harris amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938.
Kefauver added the requirement that drug sponsors prove efficacy to FDA's satisfaction prior to drug approval. This is the single biggest unnecessary contributor to both drug costs and approval delays.
The earlier standard required the sponsor to prove a drug was safe for its intended use and manufactured in accordance with sound practices. The efficacy determination, usually anything but straightforward -- think of a medical equivalent of climate change assessment -- should once again be decentralized into a market of expert physicians and their patients.
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Sarbanes-Oxley has strangled the capital market in this country, and is a bi-partisan example of government layering on more regulation, rather than questioning the efficacy of existing regulation. Repeal it, please!
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Tom, mega dittoes, as they on Mr. Limbaugh's show. SarbOx is a key reason why Silicon Valley's start-up culture is dying at home, thriving only as a transplant to friendlier soil in such as China and India.
Jun '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
John, I think a 'Repeal Day' might be better than a 'Repeal Week' - days are more memorable than weeks, and we want a date that sticks in our minds each year. I propose April 16th: like an after-Christmas sale, we can return all the junk we don't want.
A possible 7-10:
-The Department of Education
-Title IX, which has made a mess of collegiate athletics (and many other things)
-The Nuclear Regulatory Commission - or more precisely, the decisions by that commission that have strangled U.S. nuclear construction.
-The progressive income tax
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
Nothing too original, just picking what I think are the best answers:
7. Department of Education
8. SarbOx (I say repeal and replace--we've had enough time to see the strengths and weaknesses of the law)
9. The remainder of McCain-Feingold
10. The National Labor Relations Board
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
I say pick something huge. No small measures. Nothing makes a statement like heads on sticks.
I say: Social Security.
May '10
Re: Nominees for Repeal Day? Or Stop Making Laws (apologies to the Talking Heads)
I have this crazy idea.
How about a new law that requires any bill be accompanied by a detailed accounting statement? I envision a report from, say, the CBO that would include:
1) The source of the funding for the bill.
2) The full and detailed administrative cost of the bill (including the cost of processing any taxes that may need to be raised to pay for it).
3) The cost of the bill to state and local governments, as much as can be determined.
4) An accurate breakdown (by accounting standards, not Congressional) of how the money will be spent.
This statement would have to be available for public viewing for five business days before the final vote to enact the bill.
What do you all think?