The domestic Right has for decades been calling for a reduction in the size, scope and sphere of influence of government.
All the while, we have endured an excruciating and – it had begun to seem – inexorable growth of the federal Leviathan.
And after decades of incremental government expansion, it has in the last four years exploded. Up 29% – from $2.7 trillion to $3.82 trillion.
An insane financial flurry – that gave rise to the Tea Party. And thanks to them, for the first time… ever, we are discussing cutting the budget.
Not reducing the rate of growth – actually cutting.
The Left has of course rushed to the defense of their titanic spending status quo – ever increasing expenditures until we all collectively collapse in a bankrupt heap.
Their primary pseudo-reasoning has been that reducing the government’s size does nothing to create jobs. That the desire to rein in this fiscal insanity is nothing more than ideological inanity. And that ONLY more government spending will generate gigs.
Seeking to reduce spending is called by them “Economic Know-Nothingism.”
Vice President Joe Biden notoriously asserted “we got to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt.”
Seeking to outdo the Vice President, Moody’s issued an asinine report that said Republican plans to cut a paltry $61 billion – from, again, a $3.82 trillion budget, with a $1.65 trillion deficit – would result in the loss of 700,000 jobs.
Let us quickly do some math here.
If cutting $61 billion loses us 700,000 jobs, than President Obama’s nearly $1 trillion 2009 “stimulus” should have created 11.5 million jobs.
I checked – that didn’t happen.
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Of course cutting government spending creates private sector jobs.
Less money taken by and for the government leaves more in private sector hands, which is – and always has been – a fiscal force multiplier.
And the more we contract the bloated bureaucracy, the more room it creates for the private sector to grow.
A new study from the Phoenix Center proves all of this. And does so by identifying perhaps the biggest private sector killer of them all – the regulatory bureaucrat.
The regulatory bureaucrat exists only to be a bother to the private sector. Not every bothersome act is unwarranted – hardly anyone wants to eliminate every regulator. But their job description is basically “get in the way of the free market.”
There is but a finite amount of warranted bothersome-ness for regulators to do. Thusly, the more regulators there are, the more time they have to do… other things.
In other words, mess up the private sector to no good end.
And as we have pointed out, there are of late many new regulators ensconced in Washington. Which, as the Phoenix Center report states, is an expensive expansion of busybodiness.
(E)ach million dollar increase in the regulatory budget costs the economy 420 private sector jobs.
Thankfully, the Center has the simple cure – cut back on the regulatory bureaucrats.
On average, eliminating the job of a single regulator grows the American economy by $6.2 million and 98 private sector jobs annually.
That last word is key. Eliminating one regulator creates 98 gigs – not just this year, but next year, and the year after that, and….
Talk about a force multiplier.
And by creating room for the private sector by contracting the government by one regulatory bureaucrat, we get $6.2 million in economic expansion that year and every year thereafter.
These positive numbers very quickly add up to some serious private sector job and economic growth.
(O)ver a five-year window, even a small 5% reduction in the regulatory budget (about $2.8 billion) will result in $376 billion ($75 billion annually) in expanded GDP and expand employment by 6.2 million jobs (1.2 million annually).
Of course, every Obama Administration Commission, Agency and Department has – since November’s election – has busied themselves hiring many, many more of these bureaucratic busybodies. In many, many cases to enact and enforce regulations that were never passed by Congress.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) illegally shoved through Network Neutrality – first on wired and then wireless Internet. The World Wide Web is now 1/6th of our entire economy – imagine the number of bureaucrats it’s going to take to unlawfully regulate it to the degree the FCC has just decreed.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is illegally ramming through large swaths of Cap & Trade. Imagine the number of regulators to be hired to lord over every facet of our energy usage – oil, gasoline, natural gas, coal,….
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is looking to illegally enforce large swaths of Card Check. A whole new host of regulators will be required for all of that.
And we haven’t even yet mentioned ObamaCare – the 2,000+ page takeover of our entire private health care market – another 1/6th of our economy. Which creates at least forty new regulatory agencies – each packed to the rafters with new regulators.
We are being subjected to a dramatic expansion of government in nearly every direction, which continues to further crowd out the private sector.
And bigger government means more room for ever more private sector-killing regulators.
All of which explains our absolutely anemic 1.8% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in this year’s first quarter.
This avalanche of new regulators is doing just what the Phoenix Center report and all of us on the Right said it would – crushing the private sector.
These lessons must be learned.
With apologies to Walmart – it’s time for a HAY-YUGE federal roll back.