The GOP is poised to do just that – from The Fiscal Times:
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has a message for federal regulators the next time they’re inclined to write a new rule: Be prepared to defend it before a congressional committee.
“One of the things I’ve found about federal bureaucrats is [that] a lot of them are very smart . . . but they don’t like working in the spotlight,” DeMint, a leading conservative and Tea Party champion, said recently. “If they thought they were going to have to come over to testify in front of a bunch of congressmen and senators, they’d be a lot more careful about what they’re writing.”…
Excellent idea and it should be pursued with vigor – not a single bureaucratic rule should fail to get a hearing. Let’s hear the bureaucrats justify what they’ve been doing in back rooms – often at the behest of economic and political pressure groups who are using regulatory fiat to gain advantages for themselves.
We can expect this to have a backlash, however – you just watch: all of a sudden, Obama will find that he really needs a lot of Executive Privilege in these matters. And liberals will suddenly discover that a President needs to be able to keep some things confidential. Hypocrisy will run wild.
But we should still press the issue – even to the point of forcing testimony. Make a fight of it – the people vs the powerful and why are you guys afraid to talk in public? I think we’d win that fight – and we’d also be doing good for our nation because, at the very least, we’d slow down the regulatory meat grinder.
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