Regulate Does Not Mean Micromanage!

That was some weird weather yesterday. Heck, it's been a weird weather week. Does anyone remember it was 90 degrees the other day?

   Cotton is planted and coming out of the ground. The ups and downs in the temperatures are a concern. Cotton is temperature sensitive and very susceptible to cold. Fingers crossed. Prayers offered.

Regulate Does Not Mean “Micromanage”
By Paul H. Betancourt
Copyright April 2016

President Clinton famously looked silly trying to dodge a question with his answer,’ It depends what the meaning of “is” “is.” That would be a lawyer’s trick.

On a much more serious note, I do not think many in the government know what the term “regulate” means and this failure is the cause of endless mischief.

The Constitution does give Congress the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states” (Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3). Here is where I do not think today’s regulators know what “Regulate” means. Take a look at the Federalist Papers. You remember them from your Civics class. In the Federalist Papers Hamilton, Jay and Madison made their argument, point by point, for the proposed Constitution. The original Constitution only runs six to ten pages depending on your type. It’s not that long or complicated. My copy of the Federalist Papers runs over six hundred pages of fine print. They spent a lot of time discussing each point of the proposed Constitution in detail. So, what do they have to say about Article I Section 3? Madison writes on the issue in Federalist 42. For the Founders regulation was about trade! It wouldn’t be much of a unified country of they could raise import taxes against each other would it? We are supposed to be one big happy family.

So, what happened? How did we get from power to regulate trade to micromanaging business today? In his “Age of Jackson” Schlesinger writes how Jax was the first President to use power of government to control a business, in his case, the Biddle’s Bank of the United States. Schlesinger’s conclusion was, “the public conscience in the form of the democratic government had to step in to prevent the business community from tearing apart society in its pursuit of profit” (510).

So, for those who think business people want to go back to some wild, no regulation world, that is just not true. We have accepted the power of government to regulate in the modern sense for over 170 years. What we object to is the heavy hand of micromanagement, especially by people who have no idea what they are doing.

One argument for the blizzard of new regulations is that the government is acting for the ‘common good. The result, however, is not the common good. Manufacturers are micromanaged to the point where they send their factories overseas, and then they are vilified. Apple’s fans are manically supportive. Do you realize Apple does not make anything in the US? Patagonia outdoor clothing is popular with cool people. They don’t make anything in the US either. Hollywood roots for all sorts of causes, then they make their movies overseas because it is too expensive to film here because of the regulations. Do you see the pattern? My last year as Farm Bureau President I had regulators, academics, electeds and journalists tell me repeatedly, if farmers couldn’t work under the proposed rules then we could just import our food. Really Sparky? That’s your best plan?
                  We are strangling California’s farmers to take care of the fish and the fish keep dying off anyway. How is that the greater good? Both farmers and fish are suffering.

 

If you want to run my ranch, it’s for sale. You buy it and you can run it any way you want. Until then, in the immortal words of Yosemite Sam, “Back off.” You really don’t know what you are doing.

There are alternatives. In Japan business and the government work together to solve problems and build the economy.

I have said in my book, “Ten Reasons: Finding Balance on Environmental Issues” we need a healthy economy and a healthy environment. Right now we have neither.

We need to take another look what we mean by ‘regulate.’ Right now we are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. We are crushing small businesses and family farms so all that is left is big business and then we criticize big business for pushing their production overseas. As a farmer, I expect to fight bugs, weeds and the weather. I didn’t expect having to fight my own government.