It's no secret -- the web of bureaucracies in Washington is massive, inflexible, and inefficient. But, as Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal explains, our nation's bureaucracies have begun to threaten the safety of the American people.
“The White House defended the sprawling U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak on Thursday amid complaints that it’s not clear who’s in charge of the effort.”
—CNN, Oct. 2
Ebola, the Secret Service, Veterans Affairs, ObamaCare’s rollout, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Behind all these names are federal bureaucracies that are supposed to protect people or help them. Instead they have been putting individuals at risk, or worse.
Ebola’s spread in West Africa was predicted. Government agencies responded late. Now it’s here. The Secret Service is so disorganized it can’t protect, of all things, the White House. Veterans died waiting for admission to VA hospitals. The CDC lost track of anthrax, smallpox and H5N1 bird-flu samples. At the State Department, no one seems to quite know why a U.S. ambassador died in Benghazi. The 9/11 Commission explained in detail how the attackers evaded the bureaucracies. Add to this list the Internal Revenue Service, an agency of extraordinary power that has forfeited the public’s trust.
It is past time to start thinking about how much could be going wrong at so many federal agencies. Watchful waiting isn’t the cure for the next bureaucratic meltdown.
(Read the full article here.)
What kind of cure does Mr. Henninger suggest? He believes "the answer to this plague of bureaucratic damage runs... toward scaled-down, distributed public responsibilities. Less power but better, safer performance."
Of course, we know bureaucracies in Washington and the elected officials who control them will never limit their own power. Change must come from outside the beltway.
This is why the Framers included the Convention of States option in Article V of the Constitution. If 34 states pass resolutions calling for a Convention, the states can propose constitutional amendments to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government. If 38 states agree to these proposals, they become part of the Constitution. (Click here to learn more about this process.)
And the best part? Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, and every bureaucrat in D.C. won't be able to stop it.
If you'd like to help make this a reality, click here.
