Scaling back the EPA's authority is in my opinion the real answer to our issues today. The elimination of the EPA is scary to me, I enjoy swimming in watersheds without having to worry too much about chemicals/ waste in the water. I like to inhale clean air. The big corporations are to gain the most from a move like this -not the little guy, us little guys just get to breathe in the nasty fumes and be exposed to the big company's chemicals.
As noted in previous comments: we are so polarized in this country where it's often all or nothing... we are unable to compromise on pretty much anything these days...I know some may argue this but in my opinion -This is not America as intended by the founding fathers.
Schoolofhardrocks- your last statement doesn't agree with your first paragraph. The EPA and all agencies are not elected officials so in fact they are unconstitutional. The founders had dealt with these same kinds of things and that is why they mandated all laws be made only by elected officials and only by congress or state legislatures. Only elected officials are answerable to the people. Non-elected bureaucrats answer to no one and are tyrannical - always.
If you want to get back to what the founders intended as your last statement suggests you must realize that the EPA is illegal and should be completely done away with. In fact the federal government should have no say in anything the EPA has done. The constitution is very clear that the things the EPA has been doing is for each individual state to take care of. Jefferson and Madison stated emphatically that the powers of the federal government are very limited and for national defense mostly. The states created the fed and the states have more power than the feds because they control what happens in each state. The fed has no authority but specifically what is granted to them in the Constitution.
The fallacy that the state governments are just as corrupt as the feds may only be semi-true now because the people have not demanded that the fed gets out of everything and back to what the Constitution says they can do. When that happens the states MUST clean up their act. If as some have suggested, that the state gov. of say CA will be more tyrannical, which is likely with the idiots who vote those people into office, what will happen? Since the intelligent people in CA will not want to live under tyranny they will move to states that are friendly and respect Liberty and will prosper while the tyrannical states will fail and go bankrupt and unable to function. All those socialists and worthless people who want everything for free and don't want to earn anything will find that they are starving and have no clothes or shelter because the state cannot provide for them. The system will collapse in those tyrannical states and Liberty loving Americans can move back in and take over.
In addition, it will teach those lazy no good idiots that socialism is evil, wrong and doesn't work while Liberty does.
To prove this point read your history about the Pilgrims. Not the revised history from the liberal progressives but real history. The people that came to this land on the Mayflower were under obligation from the king of England to work collectively (socialism) and to send the king a large percentage of what they produced. Read William Bradfords account of what happened in that colony, "Of Plymouth Plantation". He was the original governor of the colony. The first year almost everyone died from starvation because the lazy no gooders were wanting to live off the hard working honest people. But when the honest hardworking people saw they weren't getting the fruits of their labor they realized they were working to keep the worthless members of society alive. So they quit working. The next year, against the kings order Bradford staked 'common ground' and 'private ground'. Everyone was required to work the common ground a specific amount of time and they were given plenty of time to work their private ground as well. Those who were honest hard working people prospered greatly and those who lazy and no good suffered.
Eventually the common ground was abandoned in favor or free enterprise and Liberty. They learned the hard lesson that oppression and trying to force people to be equal doesn't ever work. There will always be deadbeats who don't deserve anything because they are unwilling to earn it. They are the trash of society. They will always prefer socialism and tyranny for as long as it provides their basic needs. But when it oversteps those bounds they start to get agitated. When the tyranny collapses the no gooders are disillusioned and can't understand why and what happened. So they set out to find someone to provide for them again. Rather than becoming responsible productive members of society.
The history of this nation in the beginning was just this way. Then the colonies were independent from each other but still all under control of the king and would not allow the other colonies to regulate or pass laws for them. That is one of the reasons it was so hard for them to unite to fight the revolutionary war. But as the tyranny became worse they all were suffering and they saw the need to unite. Afterwards they knew they needed a federal government but none of them wanted the fed to have power over them. That was a failed government and that is why the Constitution was created. It took several years for that document to come into being and it was extremely hard to convince the people they needed a better slightly stronger federal government. But if you read the federalist papers you'll see that the founders did not intend for the feds to get as big as they are and that unelected officials are against the law. Where in the Constitution are unelected officials or agencies given legal status? It doesn't exist. The Constitution was written specifically so anyone with a grade school education can read it and understand it. The founders did this on purpose so the people would always be able to know exactly what is legal and what isn't and they would have no excuse for allowing the Republic to devolve into a Democracy which is a very evil form of government.
So, closing the EPA is the right thing to do. Get rid of it completely. The feds have no right and it is illegal for them to get involved with the things the EPA was created to do and the things they eventually have been doing. The states must do and take care of the problems in their own lands. If they become tyrannical so be it. It will be a short life for them especially since CA is already bankrupt and cannot support it's tyrannical laws and regulations as it is. It will collapse and intelligent Liberty loving Californians can step up and fix all the problems, returning CA to a Liberty loving people and allowing the people to earn a living while still protecting the environment and the rights of the people.
All Americans have allowed things to get as tyrannical as they are and if we are going to fix the problems we must all band together and realize that we will all have to suffer for our mistakes for a while but in the end we'll have a much better stronger country for us and our posterity.
The EPA and all other government agencies and unelected bureaucrats must be done away with.
