Blog: Regulatory Double Speak

Statement

"I agree that there are some rules and regulations that put an unnecessary burden on businesses at a time when they can least afford it. That's why I ordered a review of all government regulations. So far, we've identified over 500 reforms, which will save billions of dollars over the next few years. We should have no more regulation than the health, safety, and security of the American people require. Every rule should meet that common sense test."
- President Barack Obama, September 8, 2011

That was a statement from President Obama last week during his speech to Congress on his so-called "jobs' bill. But as my mother always said, "actions speak louder than words.' I wanted to find out if the president was willing to put his money where his mouth was when it came to regulations. And what I found just goes to show that it's easy to make promises if you don't ever plan to keep them Mr. President.

According to the administration's own regulatory website, there are 4,257 new regulatory actions in the works currently. That doesn't even include the number of regulations already on the books. So while I'm happy to see the president has finally acknowledged that we need to clean up our regulatory system, identifying 500 "reforms' while enacting 4,257 new regulations seems a little counterproductive.

Even worse, after digging around some, I was able to locate 219 new regulations that will have an economic impact of $100 million or more. Again, that's just new regulations -- not those already on the books. That's a total impact of more than $20 billion. This chart outlines each of those regulations.

So what we have here is double speak from the president. Once again, he's saying one thing while doing another. Even he will admit that overregulation will put a stranglehold on our economy -- he just won't do anything about it.

I encourage you to visit my Regulatory Roundup website. Each week, I will highlight a different regulation enacted by the White House that hampers economic growth.

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