Modern American regulation, the entire nightmare of it, was born of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of 1946. The incomprehensible jabbering of 100,000 lawyers and autocrats is found in the C.F.R. or Code of Federal Regulations (because the Code Code just wasn’t enough). The CFR has grown so large that NASA has just reclassified it as a minor planet.

Someone is about to take an axe to that old, dead tree.

President Donald Trump signed an order on Monday that will seek to dramatically pare back federal regulations by requiring agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced.

“This will be the biggest such act that our country has ever seen. There will be regulation, there will be control, but it will be normalized control,” Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office, surrounded by a group of small business owners.

Trump’s latest executive action will prepare a process for the White House to set an annual cap on the cost of new regulations, a senior official told reporters ahead of the signing.

This has never happened before. This has never even been murmured about. This isn’t whittling away with an Old Timer. This is the axe. The chainsaw. This is indiscriminate libertarianism running amok.

I’ve talked about paring down government. Ron Paul raved about it. Trump is preparing to do it. Absolutely amazing.

In law schools they candidly refer to the APA as the “lawyerly employment act”. And it is. Or was. Better retool, boys and girls.