The proper role of government in the United States continues to be a dominant topic of current political discourse. The issue may be the wisdom of bailouts and incentives, what tax rates are most effective and fair, whether citizens ought to be allowed to carry guns or required to carry health insurance, which "fiscal cliff" or "sequester" cuts should be made, or whether new and sophisticated regulations are necessary for Wall Street. However, while debating the size and reach of government, very little is spoken about the increasing level of legal complexity in the institutions and rules that govern us.
Examples of legislative complexity exist in many forms. One obvious illustration is our tax code: It is so complex that even the most intelligent Americans hire professionals to prepare their taxes. Another is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare),1 a behemoth statute of over 900 pages, with thousands of pages of regulations that will follow; not surprisingly, many legislators admitted that they did not even read the law’s text before voting.2 Another well-publicized incident of legal complexity involved the Lacey Act,3 which led to several raids of the Gibson Guitar Corporation for importing wood from India for its fingerboards. The Lacey Act requires that all imports comply with the law of the country of origin; although Indian authorities had approved of Gibson Guitar’s plans, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s different interpretation of Indian law justified the raids.4 Finally, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,5 as well as other reforms introduced in the aftermath of the financial crisis, continue to add complexity to that oversight system. It is difficult even for experts to fully understand and navigate all of Dodd-Frank’s rules and metrics.6
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