A few weeks ago, President Obama purported to promise an overhaul of the Federal regulatory regime, pledging to look at bloated and outdated piles of red tape in order to make the tough cuts necessary, in his mind, to stimulate economic growth.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Obama stated, “”Regulations do have costs; often, as a country, we have to make tough decisions about whether those costs are necessary…But what is clear is that we can strike the right balance. We can make our economy stronger and more competitive, while meeting our fundamental responsibilities to one another.”
But as Big Government demonstrated just a few short weeks ago, the progressive left did not respond favorably to the President’s call for balance between public welfare and private-sector growth. Progressive special interest groups have outlined, instead, a plan of attack on Obama’s regulatory agencies, demanding an iron-fisted regulatory regime designed to punish some of the nations most prolific industries. A few short examples:
- Just days before Christmas, the FCC voted in “Net Neutrality,” an unprecedented power grab on par or greater than Obamacare. Under this scheme, the FCC essentially gave itself regulatory power over telecommunications companies, a job it was never intended to do.
- Speaking of Obamacare, contained within it’s own regulatory scheme is a terrifying Medicare reform project called IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. IPAB consists of 15 unelected officials charged with making drastic cuts to Medicare benefits – cuts that don’t require Congressional approval and can only be reversed by a Congressional supermajority.
- On the education front, it seems that the Department of Education has been relying on the advice of noted short-sellers as it and Congress formulates policy on for-profit colleges. New rules like the “gainful employment” rule threaten to punish students for choosing not to attend favored non-profit schools and universities in favor of career-oriented schools.
- Across the country, the National Labor Relations Board has been threatening legal action against state legislation designed to protect workers from “Card Check” legislation at the behest of the Obama Administration.
- Although the Clean Air Act was never intended to regulate carbon emissions, the EPA is threatening to use it to punish energy-producing industries that it doesn’t like, like biomass, a plan that could cost Americans nearly a million jobs. At the same time, the EPA is revoking permits for clean coal operations, and despite promising to restore oil and gas production in the Gulf, the Obama Administration has failed to issue new drilling permits, resulting in a de-facto moratorium on domestic oil production.
The Republicans have just introduced draft legislation that could force the Obama Administration to live up to it’s promises to investigate regulatory overreach and institute real, job-saving reforms.
Just last week, House Republicans released a three page draft bill calling on “certain standing committees to inventory and review existing, pending, and proposed regulations and orders from agencies of the Federal Government, particularly with respect to their effect on jobs and economic growth.” You can download a copy of the draft legislation here, from Politico, which also notes in it’s Playbook:
[N]ext week, the House majority will instruct 10 committee chairs to begin an oversight process on federal regulations that could impede job growth: 1099, EPA, tax policy, etc. Each chair will go to the floor and outline oversight plans. “They will have a series of hearings, they will conduct oversight,” the aide said. “This is an effort that we expect to go for the next several months. It will result in a report coming from each committee chairman, saying, ‘Here’s our findings. Here’s jobs, jobs, jobs recommendations.’
The bill specifically targets for investigation regulations, executive and agency orders that impede job creation, discourage innovation, hurt economic growth, harm investment, limit access to capital or cut into the US’s international competitiveness.
The bill also seems to call into question a number of the regulations listed above, as it targets actions and orders that create economic uncertainty and impede economic progress like those being issued daily from the EPA, bills and agency actions like IPAB that fail to meet standards of transparency and oversight, actions like Card Check that impede labor-management relations and actions, like Net Neutrality, that lack specific authorization for execution.
This legislation, if passed, will be key in forcing the Obama Administration’s hand, and it will show American voters just how dedicated the Obama Administration is to real reform, and real job growth and creation.