Morning Bell: A False Truce in Obama’s War on Business

Conn Carroll / January 19, 2011

In fiscal year 2010, the first full fiscal year under the Obama Administration, the federal government issued 43 major new regulations. According to the Administration’s own estimates, the total cost of these rules was $28 billion. Only two of the new rules reduced measured regulatory costs, and then by only $1.5 billion. On net, the Obama Administration inflicted $26.5 billion in new regulatory costs on the economy last year, an all-time record. This was on top of the $1.75 trillion in existing regulatory costs already inflicted on the U.S. economy by the federal government. No wonder the business community, large and small, felt it was under attack.

But now that the President has been “shellacked” at the polls, and unemployment is over 9 percent for a post–World War II record 20th month in a row, the Obama Administration is desperate to convince the public that their war on business is over. Hence President Barack Obama’s Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday announcing “a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” This is a nice sentiment. But even a cursory examination of the President’s actual order shows he is all talk and no action. (more…)