In order to get an idea of the possibilities of the federal government’s ability to harass the people by erecting a multitude of new offices and sending out swarms of officers to harass its citizens, you simply need look at one small document on USA.gov. It is the index of US government departments and agencies. It lists around 450 to 500 departments and agencies. All of these require a large portion of the nation’s production to function, or the “eating out our substance.” Also consider the volumes upon volumes of laws passed by Congress, all of which are followed by volumes of rules and regulations created by each agency and department. The number of laws, rules, and regulations is so vast as to be mind-numbing, not to mention impossible for any citizen to know fully, much less follow.

It has become impossible for American citizens to adhere to all the laws of the land. Because of this, it is increasingly likely to have federal officers harassing citizens and the federal government seizing our property and threatening our livelihood. According to the Library of Congress website, the Justice Department “compiled a list of approximately 3,000 criminal offenses” with about “23,000 pages of federal law.” With many federal laws, the several federal agencies must create rules that have the force of law for each of the laws they are required to administer. Thus, the number of rules can exponentially multiply the number of laws, with these rules having the force of law.

— Chapter 3, pp. 85-86