Some on the left are mocking today’s reading of the Constitution on the House
floor as a political gimmick. While this is a largely symbolic act by the
Republican House, it accompanies a series of more substantive new House rules
that require lawmakers, for instance, to cite where the Constitution authorizes
the bill they introduce.
Neither reading the Constitution nor initiating this new rule will by itself
restore the limited government conceived of during the early republic. But it
is an encouraging first step at a time when government — and specifically, the
administrative state — has grown large, intrusive, and often invisible.
Today the administrative state — rooted in the Civil War and Reconstruction,
developed during the Progressive era, firmly established through FDR’s response
to the Great Depression and expanded through Johnson’s Great Society — has
become a barrier to freedom and economic growth, as well as an affront to the
original structure of our government. The Founders designed a strict
delineation of authority and a separation and division of power in order to
prevent the rise of an administrative state like the one we have today.
Huge, sprawling pieces of legislation like ObamaCare are hard to miss. But the
bureaucracy of the federal government, made up of countless departments,
agencies and commissions, wields tremendous power that often extends beyond the
traditional boundaries of the executive branch and is too often unaccountable
to the American public. (Consider, for instance, the recent decision by the
Federal Communications Commission regarding net neutrality, in which the FCC
authorized extensive new regulations of broadband, wireless networks and the
Internet without a clear constitutional authority.)
When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States in 1831, he was captivated
by the noticeable absence of a national state and the general diffusion of
power. The lack of administration was maintained through the structure of the
government as well as a commitment to popular sovereignty. By recognizing
sovereign power, in a written Constitution, as residing in the American people,
and by bestowing delineated powers upon representatives at the state and
national level, the Founders intended to compel government to act as and remain
the servant of the people. In this way, American political culture and
government were distinct from those in Europe, which held the people as
subjects of a sovereign state.
This vital distinction between America and Europe has faded badly and needs
attentive restoration. And the decision by Congress to seriously address the
letter and spirit of the Constitution is an important first step in this
process.
Sabrina L. Schaeffer is a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum
and managing partner of Evolving Strategies.