Regulation Policy & Welfare

The Federal Wetlands War, Part 1

by James Bovard July 1, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the 1980s, federal wetlands crackdowns have been one of the most brazen violations of American property rights. Federal agents have continually sought to play trump cards that effectively turned owners into serfs of federal bureaucracies. And despite a recent Supreme Court ruling vindicating landowners, the ...

How Roosevelt’s Farm Policy Paved the Way for Obamacare

by James Bovard June 28, 2012

The Obama administration invoked a 1942 Supreme Court agricultural-policy case to justify its sweeping health- care law compelling individual Americans to purchase health insurance. The role of Wickard v. Filburn in sanctifying Obamacare is a reminder of how the New Deal continues to imperil our rights and liberties. Unfortunately, few U.S. Supreme Court justices or journalists recognized the sordid ...

Obama Steps into It on the Family Farm

by Wendy McElroy June 4, 2012

The upcoming presidential election may well have saved the American family farm — at least, temporarily. The votes in several agricultural swing states are up for grabs, and so the Obama administration has declared a strategic cease-fire in its assault upon small agriculture. A family farm is commonly defined as “a farm owned and operated by a family, ...

Imperialists in the Refrigerator

by Wendy McElroy May 29, 2012

Various American regulatory agencies have criminalized the sale and the distribution of raw milk, allegedly as a means of protecting the welfare of consumers. The government claims unpasteurized milk is dangerous because it has not been treated to eliminate pathogens such as E. coli. Raw-milk enthusiasts counter by pointing to its health benefits and the fact that it ...

JPMorgan Lesson: End Government Bank Guarantees

by Sheldon Richman May 17, 2012

It’s widely believed that JPMorgan Chase’s recent $2 billion–plus loss proves we need the comprehensive banking regulation called for by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. That belief is wrong. In thinking about the loss, remember that the future is always uncertain. It’s easy to look back on a bad decision — especially someone else’s bad decision — and claim the mistake was ...

Federal Labor Law and Mob Tyranny

by James Bovard May 16, 2012

Since Barack Obama took office, the National Labor Relations Board has become a hotbed of controversy. Republicans charge that the NLRB is brazenly favoring unions and thwarting corporations on one bogus pretext after another. Unfortunately, those controversies are simply the latest chapter in a long history of federal subversion of freedom of contract. Prior to the 1930s, courts and legislatures ...

The Death of All Banking Freedom?

by Wendy McElroy April 24, 2012

Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) extended its reach and tightened its grip on every cent Americans earn or try to preserve anywhere in the world. The final regulations of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) were announced. Enacted in March 2010 as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, FATCA seeks to have foreign ...

The Regulatory State Gone Wild

by Laurence M. Vance April 18, 2012

According to a new Heritage Foundation report, “Red Tape Rising: Obama-Era Regulation at the Three-Year Mark,” during the first three years of the Obama administration “a total of 106 new major regulations have been imposed at a cost of more than $46 billion annually, and nearly $11 billion in one-time implementation costs.” All told, some 10,215 new federal ...

When Did Facebook Become Congress?

by Wendy McElroy March 27, 2012

A March 23rd headline in the tech zine ZDNet caused a buzz on the blogosphere. It reads, “Facebook: Legal Action against Employers Asking for Your Password.” The article explained, “The social networking giant is considering using the law to protect its 845 million users.” The two legal routes being considered are: (a) getting politicians to pass a law ...

Welfare for the Masses

by Laurence M. Vance March 27, 2012

When Americans think of U.S. government welfare programs they generally think of programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Other welfare programs include Head Start; the National School Lunch Program (NSLP); Medicaid; Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); energy assistance; housing assistance; and ...

The EEOC’s Forgotten Racial Racketeering

by James Bovard November 21, 2011

Few federal agencies have a more brazen history of trampling due process and basic fairness than the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From the time the EEOC was created in 1965, it has continually stretched its power and sought to win by legal intimidation. Its latest shenanigans need to be judged in light of its early bureaucratic racketeering. The 1964 Civil ...

Nanny State Disapproval: Manipulating Your Diet through Taxation

by Fergus Hodgson November 15, 2011

Twenty-six states intrude on our nutritional decisions by taxing soda at a higher rate than other groceries, and seventeen states do the same for candy. As if that were not bad enough in the land of the free, legislators continue to push for new and heftier taxes in this realm, with new soda taxes pending in fourteen states. A new ...