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.”