George Rebane

I don’t recall a sitting President ever writing an op-ed piece in a newspaper.  This has changed with President Obama penning ‘Toward a 21st-Century Regulatory System’ in today’s (18jan11) WSJ.  Yes, in the Wall Street Journal and not the New York Times or any of the other national liberal rags.  We must recall that the WSJ is owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, the same company that brings us the almost recently proscribed Fox News.  My hands are still trembling.

In his piece, the President paints a new picture of himself and his administration as the champions of cutting the regulatory red tape (see figure from article) that is holding back economic growth.  This is the same president who has endowed the country with tons of new regulations in his first two years in office, the same progressive who has pioneered new extra-constitutional ways to end run Congress and ‘legislate’ through both established and exploding bureaucracies.

In places sounding more Republican than Ronald Reagan, he describes his new executive order as one that –

 … requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth. And it orders a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive. It’s a review that will help bring order to regulations that have become a patchwork of overlapping rules, the result of tinkering by administrations and legislators of both parties and the influence of special interests in Washington over decades.

… We’re also getting rid of absurd and unnecessary paperwork requirements that waste time and money. We’re looking at the system as a whole to make sure we avoid excessive, inconsistent and redundant regulation. And finally, today I am directing federal agencies to do more to account for—and reduce—the burdens regulations may place on small businesses. Small firms drive growth and create most new jobs in this country. We need to make sure nothing stands in their way.

The only hint that caveats lurk beneath the surface of this ideological switcheroo is the several uses of ‘striking the right balance’ between needed regulation and, I guess, unneeded regulations. 

He certainly knows how to get the whole country’s attention.  Maybe Speaker Boehner will suggest that he start this work with Obamacare.  As for me, I would suggest starting with our three ton tax code.  Now we have to start inspecting our pigs to see if they really have grown wings.

[19jan2011 update]  The WSJ respected the President’s byline on regulatory reform yesterday by not publishing a countering editorial on the opposite page, a practice that is usual when lesser lights argue a point with which the newspaper disagrees.  So, a day later today’s editorial ‘Obama’s Rules Revelation’, along with those of other contributors, join to put the President’s words into perspective.

All of this gives rise to a healthy review of what is the real impact of our ‘regulatory burden’, a reality the frequent repetition of which has dulled our understanding of some of the underlying causes of our ongoing miseries.  It is refreshing to at least hear the collectivists admit, no matter how infrequently, that taxing something yields less of it, and regulating something invariably increases its cost.  (Our left-leaning readers should not again misinterpret this as my standing against all taxes and regulations.)