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Only Congress can tax you. So why are unelected regulators doing it?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Only Congress can tax you. So why are unelected regulators doing it?

By Jay Davidson | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." —Thomas Jefferson (1820) A battle of wills has been developing over the past 100 years, actually longer. It's a war between ideas, principles, philosophy and is the seminal event for our children's children. In truth, this conflict is eternal. Once we realize the dividing lines, our life philosophy comes clear. What type of government best suits the concept that Jefferson (the...
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If regulators make the rules, what is Congress doing?
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, National

If regulators make the rules, what is Congress doing?

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com An interesting case in Tennessee focuses on Congress delegating its legislative power to others – for decades. Not just to executive branch agencies, but in some situations to anyone at all. In Tennessee Riverkeeper v. City of Luttrell, an environmental group from another state (Alabama) sued the tiny town of Lutrell, population 1,000, over its wastewater treatment facility. Neither the federal EPA nor state environmental regulators had any problem with Lutrell. But in the Clean Water Act of 1972, Congress explicitly authorized “citizen suits,” whereby anyone can file suit to enforce the law. Like legalized vigilantes. Lutrell, the boyhood home of Chet Atkins, fought back, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Congress h...
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