Flashback: Regulating the US Into a Social Justice Economy

Barack Obama had been in office for over two years and gave us a good idea of his Marxist mission for the economy. He had already bribed people into passing Obamacare in March 2010.

June 2, 2011

On his radio show, Larry Kudlow discussed the size and enormity of government regulations in the last decade, now increasing at a phenomenal rate under Obama. According to one Lafayette.edu study, estimates indicate that between 2000 and 2004 the cost per worker of all federal regulations increased by $224, a 4.1 percent increase, after adjusting for inflation.

Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in his annual scorecard said there are 4000 new regulations in the pipeline and in 2010, the bureaucrats set an all-time record of churning out 81,405 pages in the Federal Register of new proposed rules that businesses pay for and then ultimately the consumer. Between the taxes and the regulations, why wouldn’t we have one of the worst recoveries in post-war history.

Also in 2010, federal agencies issued 3,573 final rules. In one year, from 2008 to 2009, proposed rules have jumped to an alarming 19.3%. Given 2010’s government spending (outlays) of $3.456 trillion, the regulatory “hidden tax” of $1.75 trillion stands at an unprecedented 50.7 percent of the level of federal spending itself.

Tom Donohue, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, gave his annual State of Business address in Washington and said, “When it comes to the nation’s economy, we begin 2011 in better shape than we found last year,” said Tom Donohue, chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Yet we still face a number of risks that could send us in the wrong direction.” He said that if regulatory roadblocks were “swept away,” 180 billion would be freed up to invest in the economy. Donohue said the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act passed last year for contains 259 rules, another 188 suggested rules, 63 reports and 59 studies.

“The resulting regulatory tsunami poses the single biggest challenge to jobs, global competitiveness and the future of American enterprise,” said Donohue, who blamed regulations for costing the U.S. economy $1.7 trillion per year. Donohue said the EPA, The Labor Board, and the new healthcare bill has damaged the business sector.

The Healthcare law brings us 429 regulations for every 6 pages and there are over 2000 pages. Section 3022 of the law, which is about the Medicare shared savings program, take up just six pages in the 907-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But HHS has turned that into 429 pages of new regulations and that’s too much, says Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a practicing doctor. The regulations will be costly – they always are.

And there is the EPA. They are doing endless end-runs around Congress. The EPA was never authorized to determine fuel economy standards for motor vehicles, much less dictate national policy on climate change. They are doing it anyway. For instance, the EPA passed the Endangerment Rule, which contains the agency’s “finding” that GHG emissions endanger public health and welfare. The Endangerment Rule both authorizes and obligates EPA to issue hosts of regulations.

When President Obama was asked how he would further his agenda with a GOP-controlled House, he said, there is more than one way to skin cats.  He sees regulations and rules as the way to go. In President Obama’s State of the Union address, he said, “By 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.” That is a problem since the US gets roughly 70% of its electricity from coal, natural gas and petroleum. Another 19.3% comes from nuclear power, and only 9.5% comes from “clean energy” like hydroelectricity and wind.

So how do we go from 9.5% “clean” energy to 80%? His plan is to regulate the coal industry to death, literally. The Obama administration’s own experts estimate their proposal for protecting streams from coal mining would eliminate thousands of jobs and slash production across much of the country, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Then there is the Dodd-Frank financial reform which will negatively impact bank services/costs as its implementation takes effect. “Banks are faced with increased regulatory costs, which in turn dampen the outlook for revenue growth,” analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods wrote in a recent report summing up first-quarter bank earnings.

“Balance sheets continue to shrink, particularly loans, which further weakens the outlook for significant [net interest margin] expansion and, ultimately, revenue growth,” they wrote. “Fee income also remains under pressure from regulatory costs and lackluster mortgage revenues.”

In February, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) said, “Gasoline prices are rising and we have near double-digit unemployment. The Obama Administration should be doing everything within its power to spur economic growth and create new jobs.

Unfortunately, they have not. This Administration has chosen to impose regulation after regulation and policy after policy, on American businesses that impede their growth potential and thus impede our economic recovery.

He cited several examples:

First, burdensome regulations are being used to restrict access to American energy production on public lands – both onshore and offshore.

Second, the Obama Administration is aggressively pursuing sweeping new changes to mining regulations. These regulations, by their own admission, will cost thousands of American jobs and decrease American energy production in 22 states.

Third, the Obama Administration has reversed a long-standing legal agreement and moved to establish a new “wild lands” policy that will further restrict public access to multi-purpose public lands.

Fourth, the President has signed an Executive Order establishing a new National Ocean Policy and Council that could severely restrict recreational and commercial use of our oceans.

Fifth, the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed questionable science to be used to impose regulations that could end the use of vital farm crop and tree protection products. This will cost jobs and adversely impact trade of our agricultural products.

And last, the Obama Administration has supported withholding valuable water from communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley, prioritizing the needs of a three-inch fish over thousands of workers and their families.

The cost of regulatory compliance in the US is $1.75 trillion. This brings the government’s total share of the economy to 35.5% (when added to spending).

Creativity also takes a hit. Patents are languishing.

According to journalist Edward Wyatt, there are currently 1.2 million patent applications pending—a total derived from the backlog of 700,000 patents awaiting their first action by an examiner at the Patent and Trademark Office, and the 500,000 patents that are in process. Not a good thing for the inventor or the investor.

Agencies forced into DEI.

Obama wants us to think he will reduce the burdensome regulations inhibiting business, but that’s quite fake. One only has to look at his executive which says agencies must consider “equity, human dignity, fairness, and distributive impacts” as benefits of regulation. Social justice is in love with regulations and inequity. After the order came out, every government agency said they are in compliance and the EPA said in a statement that it was “confident” it wouldn’t need to alter a single current or pending rule. YEAH, SURE.