“He who writes the rules,” letter to editor of Lakeland Times, by Kerry Thomas

October 7th, 2009 |

Author: vilas

Tuesday, October 06, 2009
To the Editor:

On Sept. 9, while the American media focused their spotlights on the continuing debate over nationalizing America’s health insurance industry, the U.S. Senate quietly and with little notice considered the confirmation of Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein as President Barack Hussein Obama’s Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.

Sunstein is a former colleague and friend of Barack Hussein Obama from the University of Chicago.

Unlike most of the president’s “advisors” (commonly referred to as czars), Cass Sunstein actually was confirmed by the Senate Sept. 10 by a vote of 57-40 (roll call vote 274). Both of Wisconsin’s Democrat senators voted to confirm Sunstein.

In his capacity as regulatory czar, Sunstein will be responsible for reviewing draft regulations throughout government agencies and overseeing the implementation of government-wide policies, according to the Washington Post.

The Wall Street Journal says the obscure job “wields outsize power. It oversees regulations throughout the government, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” Sunstein will be instrumental in administration efforts to regulate financial services, control greenhouse gases, and implement universal health care, among other things.

Why should you care?

Like so many people in this administration, Cass Sunstein is politically left of the left. Some of his more interesting positions:

Sunstein has long advocated establishing legal “rights” for livestock, wildlife, and pets. In an August 2002 paper, “The Rights of Animals,” Sunstein wrote, “Almost everyone believes in animal rights … there should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, scientific experiments, and agriculture … there is a strong argument … for bans on many current uses of animals.”

Sunstein expounded these views in a 2004 book, “Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions,” which he co-edited with then-girlfriend Martha Nussbaum. In the book, Sunstein set out his ambitious plans to give animals the legal “right” to file lawsuits.

“Animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law … any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients’ behalf.”

In 2007, Sunstein delivered the keynote speech at Harvard University’s “Facing Animals” conference (Sunstein’s remarks begin about 39 minutes into the video.)

“We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.” Sunstein also argued in favor of “eliminating current practices such as greyhound racing, cosmetic testing, and meat eating.”

Sunstein concluded his Harvard remarks by expressing his “more ambitious animating concern” that the current treatment of livestock and other animals should be considered “a form of unconscionable barbarity not the same as, but in many ways morally akin to, slavery and mass extermination of human beings.”

“Extensive regulation of the use of animals.” In other words, using government regulations to get everything the animal rights group PETA can’t get through simple persuasion.

Do you suppose Sunstein just might consider imposing new more restrictive regulations on America’s ranchers, restaurateurs, hunters, and biomedical researchers, to say nothing of regulating the dietary options available to American consumers?

As the new “regulatory czar” he’ll have the power to do just that.

With respect to a second Bill of Rights, Sunstein writes, “My major aim … is to uncover an important but neglected part of America’s heritage: the idea of a second bill of rights. In brief, the second bill attempts to protect both opportunity and security, by creating rights to employment, adequate food and clothing, decent shelter, education, recreation, and medical care.” (Cass R. Sunstein, “The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need it More Than Ever,” Basic Books, New York, 2004, p. 1).

Regarding the Second Amendment: “Consider the view that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to own guns. The view is respectable, but it may be wrong” (Cass R. Sunstein, “A Constitution of Many Minds,” Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 172-173)

“Almost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine. And if the Court is right, then fundamentalism does not justify the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms” (Cass Sunstein, writing in his book, “Radicals in Robes”).

Sunstein has an interesting view of taxes: “In what sense in the money in our pockets and bank accounts fully ‘ours’? Did we earn it by our own autonomous efforts? Could we have inherited it without the assistance of probate courts? Do we save it without the support of bank regulators? Could we spend it if there were no public officials to coordinate the efforts and pool the resources of the community in which we live? … Without taxes there would be no liberty. Without taxes there would be no property. Without taxes, few of us would have any assets worth defending” (Cass R. Sunstein, “Why We Should Celebrate Paying Taxes,” The Chicago Tribune, April 14, 1999)

And finally, here’s how Sunstein sees his new job at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA): “OIRA should see, as one of its central assignments, the task of overcoming governmental myopia and tunnel vision, by ensuring aggregate risks are reduced and that agency focus on particular risks does not mean that ancillary risks are ignored or increased” (Cass R. Sunstein, “Free Markets & Social Justice,” Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 315)

Recall the federal government’s environmental regulations regarding logging and the spotted owl; the use of water for irrigation verses the snail darter; or even the prohibition on the mining of clean coal by placing the land into a federal wilderness area. All done by federal agency regulation, not by Congressional legislation.

With such radical views, and now with the power to implement regulations in support of his radical views, it’s little wonder that Cass Sunstein has been called the most dangerous man in America.

Kerry Thomas

Sayner