Status Updates From By the People: Rebuilding L...

The original dual federalism that prevailed until the constitutional revolution of 1937–1942, in which the states still had reasonably well-understood areas of independent authority, gave way to “cooperative” federalism. Under cooperative federalism, the federal government had nearly unlimited power to override a state’s policies. At the same time, large cash grants increasingly drifted downward from Washington

Overall the contempt about federal agencies just continues. The criticism tactic is basically to index on episodes where agencies have been inefficient and/or made mistakes and conclude "see? It doesn't work and it's harmful to have it". The book is also titled "by the people" but so far it is based on corporate examples, and essentially the underlying point is "get federal agencies out of the way of businesses"

I think by now he has said that "we need to appoint the right Madisonian people in the supreme court" to reverse the social security act, probably 5-6 times. To put into perspective how he thinks, imagine you have a broken stove - my own attitude is "ok let's figure out what is broken and try to fix it", the author attitude is "it's broken, throw everything in the trash"

So far the book is written well and flows well. Problem is the content isn't controversial at all, as critics called. The ideas are not even outlandish but instead simply empirically wrong. Just for starter the government spending figures stacked against the GDP. It's also pretty contemptuous since the very beginning where he basically says "you will like this book if you think like me, you won't otherwise"...