Your Children Might Be Terrorists!
Downsizer Dispatch
Subject: Spying on Children
On Monday we made the case that had we passed the "Read the Bills Act" and the "One Subject at a Time Act" back in the 90s, the Big Bailout could not have passed last Friday.
If there had been a huge army of DC Downsizers back then, able to achieve universal visibility, and relentless, overwhelming pressure, the government laws, regulations, and programs that have led to the housing bubble and bust could also have been averted.
What was true then, remains true now. The seeds of future disasters are being sown even now, because this is what government does. It creates a crisis, and then exploits the resulting hysteria to gain new powers with which to create even larger disasters. But the cure for this disease also remains the same -- the big army, Operation Everywhere, and passage of "Read the Bills" and "One Subject at a Time."
Here's the latest reason to pass "Read the Bills" . . .
On September 17, the House passed the "School Safety Enhancements Act of 2008."
My first thought was, "The DC Upsizers are at it again!"
My second thought was that the Constitution gives Congress no authority over public safety, except on federal property. This power is left to the states.
But even aside from this, the bill implies something distressing -- that state and local governments are incapable of preserving public safety without Congressional help. But if the states really lack the will and competence to keep schoolchildren safe then they must also be incapable of governing at all. This would imply that, but for Congress, our country would be a nation of 50 Somalias.
This just isn't true.
