For several decades conservatives lamented the growth of the administrative state, aka the fourth branch of government.
Created by congress, directed by the president, and armed with semi-despotic powers, these administrative agencies, by the number of regulations they issue, are the real lawmakers in the once American republic. On paper, the fourth branch is accountable to the reps of the people, the House and Senate of the United States. Liberals love the fourth branch, for while these agencies are legally subject to congressional oversight, they are extensions of the will of the president and are, as a practical matter, increasingly unaccountable to congress. Consider Lois Lerner, who, despite being found in contempt of congress in May of 2014, wasn’t fired by Obama, and is certain to enjoy a lifelong pension funded by the taxpayers she despises. Likewise, Eric Holder was similarly held in contempt and suffered no consequences. Koskinen of IRS infamy committed perjury to congress and will not be touched.
Leftists are nothing if not aggressive, forward thinkers. Lerner, Holder, Koskinen were subject to public scrutiny and ridicule. The Obama media ignored their crimes, yet their embarrassment is public record. The left cannot stand for this. Like Obama, lesser princes such as the three high criminals must be rendered above popular investigation and criticism. To liberate future holy social justice warriors, to make them positively untouchable, they must be raised beyond the reach of the people, above all democratic will and all oversight. A fifth branch is the answer.
In the fifth branch, agencies are set up, manned, and funded without annual appropriations. They are exempt from both congressional and executive oversight. They are not only unconstitutional, extra-congressional, they go far beyond the fourth branch. They are thoroughly despotic organizations antithetical to republican, free government.
The trend toward lawgiving positively disconnected from the people entered a new phase during Obama’s first two years, for embedded within Obamacare and Dodd-Frank are the seeds of this new branch, a fifth branch of government.
The Independent Payment Advisory Panel (IPAB), aka Death Panel, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are purpose-built politburos with tyrannical powers. They are accountable to no one and no other institution. Your congressman might help you in a dispute with the Social Security Administration. He is powerless to counter a decision from the Death Panel. In similar fashion, the 1,500 or so social justice warriors at the CFPB are free to shake down, if not shut down, any institution remotely connected with finance.
If the fourth estate typified by Lerner, Holder and Koskinen can be thought of as Obama drones, the agencies of the fifth branch are autonomous vehicles. They operate independently to implement statist Utopia. If left unchecked, they are only the start. Unless confronted, unless these two despotic agencies are specifically excised from our system, expect exponential growth of fifth branch agencies that will soon snuff out what remains of free government.
Article V.
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