Democrats are rushing to pass terrible pet projects before losing control of the House of Representatives. Activists are calling on lawmakers to pass various antitrust bills that would give unelected Biden administration bureaucrats new power to control the economy. Republican lawmakers should delay consideration of any antitrust legislation until they have more leverage in the 118th Congress.

Antitrust law has been around since the late 1800s. It allows the government to step in if bureaucrats believe there isn’t enough competition in a market. For the first eight decades it was in force, politicians and judges used antitrust to bushwhack companies they believed were “too big.” Conservative judge Robert Bork traced the legislative history and determined that antitrust law was designed to protect consumers from harm, a theory he called the “consumer welfare standard.” The Supreme Court adopted the consumer welfare standard in the late 1970s, and antitrust law has been narrowly focused on protecting consumers since then.