In the world of astrophysics, dark matter is a theoretical type of matter that cannot be seen or otherwise detected with telescopes, but is believed to make up the majority of all substance in the universe. In much the same way, regulatory dark matter is difficult to detect or track, but accounts for the majority of all federal rules and regs.
Clyde Wayne Crews, a vice president of policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, sits down with Eric Boehm to discuss his new report on these "dark matter" regulations that are created without any authorization from Congress or federal agencies. There are lots and lots of them -- and before Crews tried to quantify them, there was really no accounting of exactly how many exist.
How many could he find? In the past 20 years, more than 500,000 informal “public notices” issued by regulatory agencies of the federal government.
In the opening of the podcast, Watchdog's Matt Kittle explains the newest developments in the ongoing "Secret War" in Wisconsin. Here's a pro tip: if you're going to investigate conservatives for campaign finance violations, make sure you didn't break campaign finance laws yourself.
In Texas, public officials are getting ready to sign off on a special subsidy for Formula One racing -- an industry that makes billions of dollars every year.
And in Colorado, voters will get to decide whether they want to have a single-payer health care system.
All that, plus our Nanny State of the Week, on this edition of the Watchdog Podcast.
