The President has publicly stated his intent to roll out a new expensive stimulus plan this fall. That plan is expected to contain hundreds of billions in new debt obligations to you, the taxpayer.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has a better idea. He wrote a letter today to President Obama that identifies an effective means to stimulate growth. Reduce regulations that are a hidden tax on all Americans and killing private enterprise. Reducing the regulatory burden on the economy will spur economic growth.
Speaker Boehner writes in a letter to President Obama today that private job creators are reporting that regulatory burdens are hindering new investment and job creation.
Last year, on August 16, 2010, I wrote you about my concern that the Administration’s published regulatory agenda included a total of 191 planned new regulations, each of which had an estimated annual cost of $100 million or more, with some involving billions of dollars annually. In my letter, I noted that at public forums, private sector job creators were citing this regulatory agenda as one of the primary impediments to job creation, especially for small businesses.
The economy is experiencing low growth and high unemployment. According to the Department of Commerce (via CNN), the annual growth rate for the economy was 1% in the second quarter of 2011. This is following a first quarter of 0.4% growth. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected an almost $1.3 trillion deficit for next year. Add in the unemployment numbers over 9% for months and you have bleak economic outlook for this and next year. This is not a good time to increase regulations – especially when the economy is in a need of a stimulating government policy like reducing regulations.
James Gattuso and Diane Katz of The Heritage Foundation wrote a mid-year report on regulations titled “Red Tape Rising” about the crushing burden of regulations. That report identifies a few avenues for economic growth by reducing regulations. Maybe President Obama should put down his golf bag and read this important report.
Overall, the Obama Administration imposed 75 new major regulations from January 2009 to mid-FY 2011, with annual costs of $38 billion. There were only six major deregulatory actions during that time, with reported savings of just $1.5 billion. This flood of red tape will undoubtedly persist, as hundreds of new regulations stemming from the vast Dodd–Frank financial regulation law, Obamacare, and the EPA’s global warming crusade advance through the regulatory pipeline—all of which further weakens an anemic economy and job creation, while undermining Americans’ fundamental freedoms.
These regulations are one reason why the economy is in a funk. Although the President has give lip service to the idea of reducing regulations, he has yet to scale back on the torrent of new regulations.
If President Obama needs to find 20 regulations to kill that would spur economic growth, then one need to look further than the Diane Katz report that identifies the biggest job destroying culprits: Dodd-Frank, ObamaCare and the global warming crusade of the EPA.
Boehner concluded in his letter with a request that the Obama Administration provide a list of new regulations “with a projected impact on our economy in excess of $1 billion. Regulations on the economy are anti-stimulus and Speaker Boehner is right to focus on getting the Obama Administration to provide some transparency on new regulatory burdens that will further harm the economy.
