Today, when Coloradans celebrate Independence Day, and their freedom, they’ll be living lives markedly and irrevocably less free, and less independent, than they were just a few days ago, when the 57 new laws approved during the 2009 legislative session went into effect.
It’s one of the great ironies that Americans still make such a fuss about Independence Day, even while their elected representatives shackle them down, and incrementally destroy their autonomy and self-reliance, by cranking out news laws in assembly-line fashion, most of which will prove to be Edsels.
Few if any of Colorado’s 57 new laws increase our freedom; on the contrary, I would bet that the vast majority of them are designed to inhibit liberty in some way. And what about the 51 new “fees” of various kinds that also took effect a few days ago, in a roundabout way to extract from us the fruits of our labors without having to say the word “tax”? How do they increase our independence and liberty?
These 57 new laws and 51 new fees were approved over a three month span by a part-time “citizen” legislature. Just imagine the volume of new laws being crank-out annually in states with full time legislatures. Add to that all the new laws that Congress is manufacturing each year, back in Washington, and the creeping tyranny of make-work legislating becomes shockingly apparent. In a truly free country, legislators would be rescinding 4 demonstrably-worthless laws for every new one they reluctantly approve.
I share the views of Tacitus, who said, “The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.”
Happy Independence Day, everyone. But you’re celebrating something that’s incrementally being stolen away from you, right before your eyes.
Now go have a hotdog.
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