Once again, we can see that the shiny and bright conservative armor that the Union Leader wore in decades past has turned rusty and tarnished. Never would I have expected to read a UL written Op-Ed actively advocating against the separation of responsibilities and Powers between the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch,
A quick recap:
- Legislative Branch creates Law
- Executive Branch merely follows that Law and ensures it is carried out Law
Rudimentary civics but heck, do journalists ever learn this rudimentary and foundational knowledge? Should we not demand that their editors be even semi-learned in this area? The Op-Ed concerned HB557 which would have removed the rulemaking authority from the Executive Branch and would have brought it back to the Legislative (in this case, for vaccines). Reformatted, emphasis mine:
It was close but the New Hampshire House did the right thing last week in rejecting a proposal to make it the medical authority on vaccines. While we do think our legislators often have their fingers on the pulse of the people they represent, the expertise on specific matters of health resides with the professionals.
Rule-making as it applies to vaccines currently comes under the purview of New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services. It should remain there.
Health officials are certainly not infallible. But In the case of public health emergencies, decisions of the life-and-death variety should not be subject to the whims or vagaries of 424 mostly non-doctors.
The UL niftily makes it seem as if NHHHS has had this Power since NH was formed instead of just 50 years ago. And sorry, unless a doctor is also a Legislator they should not have any more Power in creating Law than you or I. CERTAINLY, doctors should be advising Legislators in the process but it should never be left up to them to make Law outside of the Legislature. That’s unconstitutional.
Again, the Legislature [should] lead and the Executive [should] follow. So where does “Rulemaking”, the ability of the Executive Branch to “make Law” (as the rules/regulations don the force of Law mentioned in either Constitution?
Sidenote: the NHAPA has a mechanism called JLCAR which has a small select number of Legislators to “bless” or deny any rules proposed by the Executive Branch agencies. That’s still not legislating.
It doesn’t.
Instead, both the US & NH Legislatures just threw their Powers to the Executive Branch: the US Administrative Act of 1946:
…The 1946 law that gave Federal agencies the power to essentially make their own law and ability to set their own fines [and Administrative courts] was absolutely wrongheaded and philosophically inimical to the separation of powers laid out in the Constitution – and I think was the Congress’s starting moment of plunging into the abyss of being post-Constitutional. If you GIVE your power away, trust me, those that pick it up will use it.
…And you can blame it on the Republicans who hold the majorities:
- Have they held anyone in contempt AND DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT to apply penalties?
- Have they withdrawn funding for offending agencies to make them feel the pain?
- Have they held brought charges AND FOLLOWED THEM UP?
Pretty much, no. Flapping their gums only is no way to govern.
and the NH Administrative Procedures Act (enacted in 1973). Ask yourself – which process makes more Law/Rules that affect our lives? Yes, the Executive Branch. Not those that we elect to actually make Law.
And that’s exactly how the UL wants it, I guess. It’s clear that the UL is now in the mode where the Administrative State is now its preferred governance model instead of the representative Republic model that our Founders designed.
Ayup.
Also this that I had left at Treehugger a while ago on the same issue:
Two thing at play and mostly due to the fact that we almost have two societies when it comes to the Proper Role of Government.
One, from the late 1800s decided that our US Constitution was outdated given the new idea that Societies could be “engineered” by the Smart People as if they were mere replaceable cogs and need their Guiding Hand to be successful (See Bill’s unsupported supposition above that the US, with 330M people, NEEDS that heavy hand). It is these folks that have inserted themselves into the bowels of Govt and have almost 180’d our Founders vision from being being one where Govt was supposed to protect Individual Liberties to one where Govt makes most of the important decisions (in contradiction to that vision)
The rest, myself include until a few years ago, placed our emphasis in family, friends, and careers thinking that Govt would just continue to work as we had learned in school.
And we have learned that this premise has been wrong for far too long. That’s how we “lost control” – most forgot the admonition that our government was only for a moral and involved people.
I’m afraid that too many became too complacent so we are where we are.
But I am labeled as an extremist for going against that now openly Socialist Narrative while I only hold onto the values embedded in the US (and New Hampshire) Constitutions – and fight for those values to be restored. Which requires a return to a limited Govt that stays within its “lanes”.
And to which Bill (and other THers) scoff at.
