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> The Legislative branch's ONLY JOB is to make laws. I don't think that's quite right. Its job is to change the laws. That can mean adding laws, repealing laws
by gjm11 13y ago
> The Legislative branch's ONLY JOB is to make laws.
I don't think that's quite right. Its job is to change the laws. That can mean adding laws, repealing laws, updating existing laws in the light of changing circumstances, etc. And "changing the laws" includes one-off things that do something once and don't leave much enduring cruft behind, like the Hurricane Sandy relief bill.
There's no reason in principle why they couldn't do their job while keeping the total amount of law constant or even reducing it. If in practice they do spend almost all their time (when not gridlocked) making new laws without trimming the resulting bloat, the problem isn't simply that their job requires them to do that.
- rmrfrmrf 13y ago> There's no reason in principle why they couldn't do their job while keeping the total amount of law constant or even reducing it. Actually, there is! The reason is because Congress can only make laws -- that includes laws that repeal other laws! Note how we still have the Eighteenth Amendment despite it being nullified by the Twenty-first Amendment. While there can be, in theory (and again, with such a large mass of people, it's really only in theory) laws whose sole purpose is to repeal other laws, such laws almost never make it to the President without a sizable layer of pork slathered on top in order to gather enough votes.