- A Well-Regulated and Restrained Federal Government -
Texas Governor and Presidential candidate Rick Perry has suggested a part-time Congress as a way to reduce the power of the federal government. Governor Perry is still one of the candidates that I would prefer to both President Obama and to leading GOP candidate Mitt Romney but, in this instance, Governor Perry is wrong.
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I am certainly in favor of the reduction of federal power, but this is the wrong place to start. I understand that people are disappointed with Congress, but the US Representatives and the US Senators are directly elected by the people. If we citizens do our jobs properly, then we should want them to be full-time agents of the American people. We have certainly made mistakes in whom we have chosen, but we can also correct those poor choices.
Far more importantly, the power in Washington will not go away simply because Congress is in session a lesser amount of time. All of the power that the federal government has purposefully accumulated over the past 150 years or so will not disappear. Those powers will be wielded by others that we do not elect. The usage of those powers will be publicly justified as the necessary means of conducting the people's business.
