…Needless and counterproductive as many administrative regulations are, the preliminary question should be whether the politicians and bureaucrats really have any legal authority to make them. Ours was supposed to be a government of limited powers, with the central government having very few, carefully defined ones. Telling people how much water (or anything else) they’re permitted to use is far beyond the scope of our government as it was originally conceived.

Suppose that someone had asked, say, Ben Franklin right after the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, “I read here that Congress is to have the power to regulate interstate commerce — does that mean that politicians could pass a law putting limits on the number of candles I burn or the amount of soap I use?” Franklin would have replied, “Of course not. Keeping the flow of commerce among the states regular does not confer any authority to dictate personal choices.”

If Franklin were here today to see the unchecked, arrogant power of politicians and appointed bureaucrats, he would no doubt say it’s time for another revolution.

Read the full article here.