Turning back the leviathan of the administrative state

There are two stacks of papers in Utah Senator Mike Lee’s office that should cause all Americans to pause. One stack is 400 pages; the other is over 80,000 pages. The short stack is
all of the laws Congress passed in 2014. The 11-foot tall tower is all federal regulations.

Senator Lee and other members of Congress see this disparity as indicative of not just a growing government, but an erosion of the separation of powers. They are correct. When James Madison authored Federalist 47, he gave voice to a sentiment shared widely by the Founders: consolidating executive, legislative, and judicial power into one entity is “the very definition of tyranny.”