Conservatives have failed their fiduciary and political duty to stop and reverse the Administrative State growth and tyranny because they were tricked into believing that these things are necessary for a modern society.  Theo Wold, Trump policy aide, now solicitor general for Idaho, in this American Greatness essay, explains the origin of the socialist Administrative State project under FDR aide James Landis.

Wold asserts that Landis aggressively and massively expanded the federal government on his belief that socialism and a powerful Administrative State were the solution for modern societal problems.  FDR agreed with Landis.  Landis's position was that a strong Executive Branch is the solution for ineffective legislative and judicial branches.  His solution was an executive agency system that made laws, regulated, and had administrative judicial processes to enforce regulations. 

What the tripartite branches could not coordinate among them directly, Landis believed administrative agencies could coordinate as a substitute. Landis then aimed to create administrative agencies that themselves combined the three aspects of government.  

Wold describes the effects of the Administrative State from his experience in the Trump administration.  Bureaucrats have their own agenda.  They refused to implement Trump's policies promised to the electorate whenever and wherever they could, and they could — a lot,  on the border wall, education, and immigration.  "The idea that the federal bureaucracy is accountable to the president is a mirage."

Past failures to control Administrative State growth

Mr. Wold discusses failed projects to push back the Administrative State.  "Landis believed the complexity of modern problems demanded the Administrative State as a solution, and by and large, even conservatives have agreed."  For example, Herbert Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) for Federal Reserve lending in 1932 that survived until 1957.  The RFC, a quasi-government-sponsored financial institution, had an army of "experts" with independent authority and activities.  Robert Taft, the leading Republican conservative of the time, supported the RFC. 

The RFC was a template for many FDR programs: the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Housing Administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Conservatives had bought the idea promoted by Democrats — creeping socialism.

Mr. Wold provides us with a list and details about the failures to tame the Administrative State.

1. The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, details provided. 
2. The Chevron Deferense describes a Supreme Court opinion that hands power to arbitrate regulatory activity to the agencies — a legislative and judicial surrender.  
3. The REINS Act of 2023 gives Congress approval authority for large expenditures but still concedes agencies' expert authority and does nothing to control the Administrative State hijacking of legislative and judicial powers.
4. Regulatory oversight and deregulation efforts have been failures.  Past Republican presidents have all failed to control Administrative State abuses.  Congress has been complicit in the growth of size and strength of the Administrative State for reasons discussed.

A Proper Diagnosis

Mr. Wold tells us the sad fact: conservatives have failed to restrain the Administrative State because it has accepted the necessity of the powerful and unaccountable Administrative State.  Wold proposes a comprehensive plan for reduction of the administrative tyranny:

1. First, draft and pass legislation to require a universal sunset for all agency regulations.
2. Second, repeal and reverse large portions of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, with the imposition of term limits for bureaucrats.
3. Third, Republicans should ban or restrict public-private partnerships in governance.

The plan requires preparation and commitment, but most of all fortitude — the political noise that federal workers and their allies in politics and business can create is not a minor consideration, even though the Hatch Act says federal employees should conduct themselves as nonpartisans.  Industries and political interest groups that have comfortable relationships with the regulatory state will argue for the status quo.

Wold's reforms will be successful only if the Republicans in Congress are prepared, and willing to act to change things, which is uncertain. 

Upending the belief that only rule by experts can accomplish the aims of modern governance must be the goal of any future Republican administration.

No doubt, as you read this review, you thought of the writings of Ludwig von Mises, Hayek, Friedman, Codevilla, and Sowell, enemies of the bureaucratic state.  Mr. Wold offers a way out, but will Republican politicians make it happen?  I doubt it.

John Dale Dunn M.D., J.D. is a retired emergency physician and inactive attorney in Brownwood, Texas.

Image via Picryl.