Bill Fawell, the Republican candidate for Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, posted a video April 3 outlining his platform, which proposes the passage of what he calls the Liberty Act.
“I understand a candidate proposing legislation prior to being elected is unusual, but then we live in unusual times,” he states at the outset of his almost six-minute video, uploaded on YouTube.
Fawell believes America is largely run in an unconstitutional manner, by unelected federal bureaucrats.
Bill Fawell
“The unhappy truth in America today is (that) we are no longer ruled by the people, and there is no separation of powers in America anymore,” he says.
“Over the past 100 years, the powers of Congress and the states have been handed over to various created federal agencies, which are largely administered within the executive branch by the ‘necessary but not necessarily proper’ clause at the end of (Article 1), Section 8,” of the U.S. Constitution, Fawell says in his campaign video.
According to the writings of President George Washington (whom Fawell frequently cites in his campaign materials), the process unfolding in the U.S. today is akin to overthrow of the government, Fawell says. Specifically, he is referring to the rise of a federal bureaucracy
“According to George Washington, this is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed,” he says. "This cancer of centralization is what drives the gap in wealth inequality, fosters low-paying jobs, has destroyed the middle class and corrupts health care, creates deficit spending, overly funds elections and extends itself into endless war.”
Fawell supports the idea of decentralizing federal bureaucracies, diving their power according to a simple principle: matters of international interest are reserved for Congress, while domestic issues are tackled by the 50 states.
“I ask you, what is more efficient and closer to the people: 50 state capitols or one ivory-tower bureaucrat sitting 1,500 miles away?” he proposes in the video.
One of the breaches of separation of power he points out is the Federal Communications Commission, which he describes as “five former lobbyists at the communications commission given the power to decide internet policy for 300 million Americans.”
That power, he argues, is constitutionally under Congress’ direction.
“I intend to strike at the heart of what is wrong in America today, at the daily operating model of our government, the nuts and bolts,” he asserts in the video. “This is the purpose of my national proposal of the Liberty Act to all Americans across all America.”
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