Unlimited Government

Since neither major political party is for limited government,the constitution is no longer real popular either.Chris DeMuth explains unresticted government:

The framers, regarding taxation as the most politically sensitive of government powers, required that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the people’s chamber, the House of Representatives. This is the sort of fussy procedural formality that is just a damn nuisance when it comes to running a modern, efficient government. Accordingly, twice in recent years Congress has empowered agencies to devise and collect taxes all on their own—first the Federal Communications Commission in 1996, and then the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. Both agencies decide how much they want to spend, set a tax that will generate the desired funds, and increase the tax as needed to keep their business plans on track.



The FCC tax, on long-distance telephone calls, has grown from 3 percent to 11 percent, and presently garners $6.5 billion a year. The Commission spends this on computers for schools and libraries, Internet connections for rural health clinics, and other worthy causes. The Accounting Oversight Board raises its entire operating budget with its own national tax levied on all publicly traded corporations of any size. The Board sets its budget for the year ($103 million for 2004, then up 33 percent to $137 million in 2005), divides that amount by the number of U.S. companies weighted by their market capitalizations, and sends each company a bill.


Neither Congress nor the President is in the loop on any of this. Of course Congress wrote the laws that established these procedures, but Congress is not supposed to be able to excuse itself from its assigned Constitutional duties—and none is more important than taking political responsibility for imposing taxes. With the emergence of bureaucracies with their own autonomous taxing-and-spending authority, we have crossed a great Constitutional Rubicon; it is an innovation in outside-the-box, plug-and-play government that is sure to replicate.

What's going to stop those in government from wanting more money for "good" causes?