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The Rise of the 4th Branch of Government
Posted: May 25, 2013
The rise of the fourth branch of government
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.
There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand.
Clearly, there was a degree of willful blindness in these claims. However, the suggestion that someone, even the president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.
The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.
More here:
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Flawed argument from the get-go. - This is 2013, not 1790
[ In Reply To ..]Comments section has proven useful in disposing of the false premise....that is before it disintegrated into your typical forum mudslinging match. Here are a few highlights of the logic used to this end:
Growth in the size of government has not been exponential. It's low-slope linear at best. Turley fails to account for some fairly blaring differences between 1790 and present day. The population has grown by a factor of x120; public employees x2800, mostly attributable to the geographic expansion from 430,000 sq mi in 1790 to to 3,633,263 sq mi today, leading one to conclude that the scope and breadth of the federal government "management" was required to change right along with the times. Then there's the night-and-day advance in technology complicating the picture of consequential cultural evolution. Along those same lines, one must factor in the massive changes globalization interconnectivity has superimposed.
The figures Turley cites also argue against his faulty premise. In 1962 there were 2,515,000 public employees serving 184,537,373 Americans. That works out to a ratio of 1 federal worker for every 74 Americans. According to Turley, today we have 2,840,000 federal employees serving a population of 315,000,000. That figure is not entirely accurate. In fact, as of 04/01/2013 there were a total of 2,184,400 federal workers according to the BLS (see link), or a ratio of 1 employee for every 144 people. Not only have we witnessed a 51% DROP in per capita ratios, but by comparison we can see the growth of government workers (+13%) has in no way kept up with that of the population (+50%).
Another was to look at this is a comparison to the previous administration. In 2001, there were 2,090,600 federal employees and by Jan 1st, 2009, there were 2,258,300, and increase of 167,700. From 2009 until today, the federal workforce has SHRUNK by 73,900.
Yep, to be sure government is bigger than it was in 1790. So is the US and it's population, whose culture and lifestyles are considerably more complicated than they were when we had 1,000 feds employees.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/USGOVT.txt
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. - nm
[ In Reply To ..]nm
It's amazing how the supposed smartest man in world knows less than underlings! sm - mtwith6yearstogo
[ In Reply To ..]But none of this will matter to those emotionally attached without the critical thinking skills to see the harm.
My critical thinking skills tell me - sm
[ In Reply To ..]the scandal mongers are tirelessly working overtime trying to play both ends against the middle. Stage one was trying to lay Benghazi-, IRS-, and AP-gate at the steps of the White House door and to implicate the president's direct knowledge and involvement. Now that a couple of weeks of feverish effort to make that stick has essentially failed on account of credible evidence to the contrary, we see a complete reversal in tactics by stepping up a flimsy argument based on the notion that he knew nothing and is too removed from that same direct involvement they tried to conjure up in the first place. Enter the "get rid of big government" ideologues, who are also overplaying their hands.
The only logical conclusion to draw from this is that the entire ball of wax is not about getting at the truth and is certainly not about instituting legislative reforms to address these issues. It's (yawn) all about the scandalizing anything and everything to create some imagined basis for impeachment (surprise, surprise), an agenda they mounted from the moment President Obama was sworn in back in 2008. Let's call this what it is....a grossly misguided back door effort to throw the 2012 election results, a contest they could not win legitimately by nominating an electable candidate with an electable agenda.
Critical thinking requires truth, not talking points. I feel sorry for you. nm - justme
[ In Reply To ..]xxx
Which part of this personal slam is political? - just curious. nm
[ In Reply To ..]nm
First all truth is not political. Feeling sorry for you is not a slam. SM - justme
[ In Reply To ..]I know you are intelligent. You have to be in order to do this job.
I'm old enough to remember when JFK was killed, but more than that how the press covered up his drug addiction and womanizing. The press is worse today, they don't try to hide it and it's 24/7.
I remember the learning the founding principles of this country and I see it heading in the wrong direction.
Memorial Day makes me feel sad for all the veterans who died (including my father) fighting for these principles, but also for America and what it's become.
That's why I feel sorry for you.
I posted a political opinion - sm
[ In Reply To ..]which in no way was characterized to be fact. I arrive at that opinion by using elements of critical thinking skills. At this point, I think a definition of that term is in order.
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information (which may or may not be accurate, let alone "true") gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, logic, or communication, as a guide to BELIEF and action. This definition comes from the article cited below. We can clearly see that the concepts of "truth" or "fact" receive nary a mention.
The article goes on to say, "In its exemplary form, it is based on UNIVERSAL intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
I made no assertions that my selective approach to forming belief systems based on critical thinking skills is in any way exemplary. In fact, I recognize the limitations in the human condition when it comes to the ideals behind such notions as "universal" intellectual values or "truths," and the like. I simply do not embody that kind of hubris. Your posts indicate that, not only do you do not shy away from making such claims, you are perfectly comfortable disparaging others for not having arrived at the same "universal" truths to which you claim to be privy.
For the record, the observation, experience and reflection component of my critical thinking skills emanate from 64 years' worth of life's lessons. I too remember JFKs assassination and its news coverage...quite differently than you do. However, I do not feel the need to invoke the founding fathers or our military to use as sledgehammers in an effort to convince you that it's either my way or the highway.
I hope I NEVER reach the place where I think I know every truth there is to be known and am unable to recognize just now ethereal that whole concept really is. That said, this forum almost NEVER deals with anything other than a collection of beliefs and opinions brought here for the expressed purpose of debate, not pronouncing judgments on those here who do not march lockstep with one's own set of universal "truths."
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
sm - sm
[ In Reply To ..]I feel sorry for *me* that I can't write like that!! ;-) Awesome post.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell - justme
[ In Reply To ..]xxx
Really? You do? Why? - nm
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