Contrary to popular belief, Congress does not have a problem passing laws. While they rarely do see eye to eye on anything, legislation continues to be passed. The number of laws in our country has exploded. About 100 years ago, all of the federal statutes could fit into one volume. By 2018, the US code was 54 volumes and 60,000 pages. Over the past decade, Congress has adopted an average of 344 new pieces of legislation each session. That amounts to 2 million to 3 million words of new federal law each year.
It is estimated that there are now north of 300,000 federal laws alone, with over 60,000 state laws in NC alone. With all of these new laws being passed, are we a more virtuous nation?
Here’s a crazy thought: Maybe if we stuck to the original 10, our country would be in better shape.