How Federal Agencies Control Your Life

I will admit that a certain amount of executive branch regulation is for the public good. For example, if a mattress manufacturer was filling its products with fiberglass and ceramic shards, it could prove to be bad for Americans.

However, some of these agencies are determined to take away your freedom of choice by limiting or completely removing your options.

For a quick primer in the 10 worst laws and non-legislated executive regulations, see this article by the Heritage Foundation.

First, let's take the wonderful NLRB. Members are appointed by the Chief Executive (That means the POTUS) with congressional approval, normally. They openly support unions. Once upon a time, labor unions served a purpose. That time has long since passed and they have become the very monster they were allegedly designed to prevent. These days, unions decide who gets to work and who doesn't. They also charge those who wish to work fees in order to even be eligible. What do they do with those funds? First they line their pockets. Next they lobby. They lobby the NLRB to enact regulations against companies that do not employ union members. They lobby Congress to earmark government spending into companies that hire ONLY union members. They assist in picking and choosing what companies are able to produce what products and at what prices. They drive up production costs of union employers. The non-union employers can provide more net pay to non-union workers while keeping capital costs down, therefore product prices lower. So, these unions get the NLRB to seek fines and regulatory restrictions against those non-union employers, causing production and capital costs to rise. Higher capital costs mean higher capital gains tax bills. This makes the non-union employers have to charge more for the products in order pay those higher bills, fees, taxes. This drives those companies out of business. So, the NLRB kills free trade and reduces the variety of products available.

http://www.pjtv.com/s/G42DEMI 

Either that, or the companies seek labor and manufacturing capital outside of the US.

And let us not forget that the NLRB also sides with Teachers' Unions, but not in the interests of bettering education or eliminating comprachico indoctrination. In fact, they help further the comprachico's goals to brainwash your kids while failing to teach them basic skills like grammar, math, thinking, and reading:  http://townhall.com/columnists/kyleolson/2011/12/21/teachers_union_president_deems_education_too_complex_for_taxpaying_rubes

Next we have the lovely FDA. Untested drugs loosed onto the public could lead to bad things. However, the FDA doesn't just review testing and approve products. It would be nice if that is all they did. However, they force pharmaceutical companies to go through exhaustive and costly testing above what is necessary. After that testing is complete, the FDA does its own testing, charging the companies to do so. Why? So they can regulate what is put on the market and what choices you have available. All the testing also drives up the per pill cost for the medications. A pill that costs  $.30 in materials and labor can carry up to $10 in regulatory fees and "research costs" resulting from all of the testing. The release to the public of safe and necessary drugs also requires years and years before being available, at the cost of the health of those who could most benefit.

Thus the FDA drives up health care costs. Yes, those very costs that the government passed Obamacare under the claim it is meant to reduce. It doesn't reduce those costs. In fact, elements of the Obamacare law grant the FDA further powers to restrict production, choice, availability, and costs of drugs.

Under current FDA regulations, Aspirin would never make it onto store shelves and would likely cost $12 a pill by prescription (if it even got beyond the regulations to be made available).

The US Dept of Agriculture has even passed regulations that make it illegal for a Dairy Farmer to serve his own milk to his own family. Under recent regulations, that dairy farmer has to sell his milk to a processing plant and buy it back at increased prices in order to feed it to his family. Isn't it wonderful that a government agency can tell you that you do not have a choice to eat the food you grow? Those "victory gardens" planted during WWII would be regulated, taxed, fined, and restricted under current regulations. In other words, the USDA is trying to force you to have to buy food from the businesses that lobby them and bribe them.

Now let's move onto the greatest fiend in the executive branch bureaucracy, the EPA.

Who wants clean air, water, land, etc? I do. Everybody does.

But at what cost?

First of all, we have these "clean energy/green energy" bulbs. How good for the environment are they? They contain toxins that "Edison" bulbs do not. Sure, they use less electricity to produce candle-watt power. But if one breaks, you have to spend a mint to clean up the mess. If one burns out, what will the average American do? Toss it in the trash. From there, it goes into a landfill and poisons the land. So, it may reduce the amount of coal burned to keep your lights on. However, it poisons the land that will be the next low-rent housing project 5 years from now. Also, these things cost a LOT more at the retailer. Well, the EPA passed regulations and lobbied Congress to pass a bill outlawing incandescent bulbs. That means you lost the choice to purchase the types of bulbs you may want, and be forced to sit in the dark or buy the poison-bulbs. Thankfully, congress told the EPA to take a flying leap on this one.

http://videos2view.net/smackdown.htm

The EPA also restricts US petroleum and natural gas companies from producing and refining domestic resources. They make us dependent upon foreign supplies. This drives up prices at the pump.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/m-the_epas_unconscionable_war_on_fracking.html

The EPA restricts and regulates coal mining, making it almost ten times its non-regulated price.

The EPA pushed for federal spending into such great products as the Prius and the Volt. The replacement cost on a Prius battery can be as high as $6000. And there is no means of disposing of the batteries without poisoning the air, land, or water. Why? Allegedly to decrease carbon emissions and gasoline consumption. However, those emissions over 5 years use of a regular car are nowhere near as toxic as a single battery. And those lovely Volts? Have you read up on them? They tend to burst into flames. Those fumes are far more toxic than the emissions of a standard gasoline engine. You have the same issues with the batteries you do with the Prius. Now you get to add the public safety hazard of cars bursting into flames. And the NLRB conspired with the EPA on the Volt. How? American Auto-Workers Union being given stock in GM during the government buy-out ("stimulus") ring any bells?

Here's even more headaches about the Chevy Volt. Sticker price to a buyer: $41,000. Cost to Taxpayers? $250,000 so far. http://reddogreport.com/2011/12/each-chevy-volt-costs-taxpayers-250000/#.TvH9_LpjZd0.twitter

And let us not forget how they intend to inflate your electric bills, heating costs, transportation overhead, etc. :  http://townhall.com/tipsheet/erikajohnsen/2011/12/22/the_epa_to_oil_and_coalfired_plants_cut_down_or_shut_down

I can go for days on the EPA. They are the single most intrusive regulatory agency in the executive branch. http://www.boortz.com/weblogs/nealz-nuze/2011/dec/15/epa-and-phony-environmental-movement/

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/amyoliver/2011/12/24/green_technologythat_pollutes_the_planet

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/12/26/obamas-green-jobs-program-infused-with-politics-at-every-level/

Now let us look at the DOJ. Here we have Eric Holder trying to Unconstitutionally regulate state polling laws. We have Eric Holder bringing suits against states for enacting laws to support federal laws that he happens not to like. Then we have Eric Holder attempting to take away our Constitutionally guaranteed 2nd Amendment rights. How? He broke the law and supplied invading foreign criminals and their terrorist allies with weapons. His programs failed and caused a negligent fallout of US BP agents, US Citizens, and Mexican Nationals to be murdered. He then complains that the investigation is "racist". Why? He wants to join that fallout with the left-wing fanatic's assassination attempt against Gabby Giffords (D-AZ, but 2nd Amendment supporter).  http://townhall.com/columnists/chriswcox/2011/12/20/obama_administration_endangered_lives_to_justify_gun_control
http://biggovernment.com/jcadams/2011/12/22/confessions-of-perjury-inside-doj/

The list goes on and on and on.

US Dept of Education telling you what you can and cannot teach your kids. They support truancy laws against parents who choose to home school. Abraham Lincoln was home schooled. He became a lawyer and then President of the US. The comprachicos in the government schools were nowhere near as insipid in their indoctrination programs in the early 1800s. They want to force you to have to pay for certain books if you do home school, in places they haven't been able to take away the home school choice completely.

And let us not forget what happens when the Dept of Indoctrination (Education) links up with the NLRB, Dept of Health and Human Services, and the First "Lady". We get substandard and overpriced "free lunches" "for the kids" that do nothing but line the pockets of another union known to be a bastion of the socialist agenda:  http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2011/12/21/michelle_obamas_unsavory_school_lunch_flop 

The IRS is given the power to enact regulations, fines, and fees that carry the weight of law, without actually being law. They try to tell you what charities you can give to. They try to tell you what you can invest in. They try to restrict how much you can expand your business capital in order to produce more (and employ more people). http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2011/12/20/federal_court_ignores_constitution_gives_more_power_to_irs

Now for the truly scary part of all of this. These agencies enact regulations either directly or through executive orders that have the weight of law. They do so WITHOUT representative legislation. That means they do things that have the powers of laws without YOU having an elected official voicing your rights or wishes in congress. This is not what the framers of the US Constitution had in mind. In fact, the Federalist Papers were highly against such actions. 

So, they drive up prices, restrict production, and eliminate your freedom of choice. Why? All in the name of controlling you because they believe they know what is best for you more than YOU do.

I would love to extend a personal "Thank You!" to all of the journalists that wrote the articles I linked into this essay. You guys are nothing less than awesome.