The Solution to the Chevron Crisis is Less Government

Peloni:  Greenfield is quite correct in his analysis here, especially about the interest which some on the Right have come to develop in using a expansive govt to implement their own agendas.  Whether it is for the policies on the Right or those on the Left, bigger govt is never the answer, but always results in creating greater problems.  Less govt restores power to the people, and that should be the guideline of reason and liberty, as well as those on the Right.

Daniel Greenfield | June 30, 2024

The Supreme Court’s decision striking down Chevron Deference has set off Democrat hysteria, but as I warned in my post on it, Republicans will soon miss it once they take office and every federal agency gets sued.

Chevron Deference abusively allowed federal agencies to interpret the laws they implement. The argument though was that the alternative was having judges settle every dispute. And while Chevron Deference rarely favored conservative agendas (but then again how often do federal agencies implement conservative policies), federal judges are at best a mixed bag. Without judges deferring to the agency position, judges will come away with even more power. That’s an argument Justice Elena Kagan ironically made in her dissent.

But the underlying problem, as is often the case in political battles between branches of the government, is the government. We have far too much of it. Federal agencies have been given vast powers over everyone. So has the judiciary. The ultimate solution has to be less power, not more of it.

Striking down Chevron Deference weakens an administrative state that runs virtually unchecked. Courts at least provide the public with some recourse, which a vast self-inflationary bureaucracy does not.

The only answer is what it has been all along and that is using the courts to reduce the scope, scale and authority of the government.

That’s what striking down Chevron Deference does. It weakens the authority of the government. And in some cases the scope and scale of the government.

And that’s the conservative project.

Lately the idea of shrinking government has become controversial in some circles on the ‘right’ who have come to believe that we need a bigger and stronger government to executive their agenda. The simple fact is that government can only deprive us of liberty, it can’t provide it, and government has an innately socialist bias. Even using government as a tool to shrink the government has its hazards. Building up the government is the classic RINO fallacy and it can only end one way.