76-01-B1
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(Getting Back at the) Bureaucrats B[edit]
Transcript[edit]We are governed more and more by people we never elected, and who can't be turned out of office by our votes and who want more power than they already have. I’ll be right back. Yesterday I talked of how much government regulation and paperwork is adding to the cost of government and to the cost of living. There are some congressmen who need our help. They too are concerned about the effect of Federal regulations on economic activity, jobs, prices & the tax burden. They have formed a task force called “Gear”—for “Govt. Executive Agency Review.” So far their findings support the complaints of both business and consumers. For example they price government regulation of the airlines as adding $1 Billion a year to our travel costs. The Rock Island Railroad. went bankrupt after waiting 13 years for the I.C.C.1 to answer their request for a merger which could have prevented the bankruptcy. Two years ago the American taxpayer put up $2 Billion to foot the payroll for the regulators. Today the tab is $3 Billion. That’s a 50% increase in just 24 months. The Environmental Protection Agency and The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's conflicting rules and requirements have forced the closing of 350 foundries and thousands of small businesses according to Congressman. John Myers2 of Indiana. He also adds that Federal paperwork cost has gone up 150% in 8 yrs. Congressman Ron Paul3 of Texas reports that under the Food for Peace program which was to feed the worlds hungry and at the same time reducing our own food surpluses, we have bought and shipped to Syria abroad in the last 20 years $677 mil. worth of tobacco. Maybe we figure a smoke will make them forget how hungry they are. There are however greater dangers to all of us than just this waste of money. For a number of years now the Federal government, has tried to get control, if not ownership of, privately owned land in America. A decade ago they pushed the panic button on the supposed lack of recreational land and began gobbling up mining claims and other property. At that time a Federal official announced that in the beginning the government had to encourage private ownership to get the land developed but now the goal was to regain government control of land. More recently the device has been “land planning.” Never does Washington state the true purpose. Land planning would leave you with deed to the property plus the right to pay taxes on it but government would dictate it’s use. When proposed openly as land planning it was defeated thanks to public pressure. Now there is another one plan. The E.P.A. has come up with something called “significant deterioration” standards for purity in ambient air. Very simply this means that any part of the U.S. where the air is cleaner than the air quality required by national standards can be prevented from doing anything to lower air quality even though it equals or excels the standards set for air anywhere else in the United States. There has been no public debate. This is not law passed by Congress. It is regulation pure & simple imposed on us by permanent civil servants. What it means is that up to 2/3 of the U.S. will be permanently barred from any kind of growth or development. Suppose you live in a rural area and of high unemployment and an industry wants to build a branch plant on the edge of town? E.P.A. can arbitrarily say “no.” In fact even a school building with it’s heating plant & adjacent parking lot could be ruled out by those omnipotent elitists along the Potomac. This is nothing more than back door land planning; getting under the guise of environmental protection what they couldn’t get openly. And the public works committees of both the House and Sen. have proposed enshrining these bureaucratic proposals in Federal law. It is time to write your congressman. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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