January 18, 2011

"President Barack Obama plans a government-wide review of federal regulations, aiming to eliminate rules that stymie economic growth."

"The move is the latest effort by the White House to repair relations with corporate America, hoping to spur investment by the nation's largest multinationals and reduce unemployment."

And here's the underlying Wall Street Journal op-ed by Barack Obama, which features an illustration of a man — not Obama... he looks a bit like Don Imus — in a gray business suit, running with scissors — running with scissors! — cutting his way through an abstract field of red tape. In the op-ed, Obama is all about carefully and thoughtfully weighing the value of particular regulations in relation to the burdens they impose, so the picture is amusingly inapt.

58 comments:

Unknown said...

And, after Slobbering Barney's go at "financial reform", if you really believe that, you can wave at all the little piggies orbiting just below the ceiling.

X said...

how would he even know? he gets confused when his liability insurance won't fix his car.

tim maguire said...

Should have been a child running with scissors--that's more in keeping with Obama's level of experience and likely aptitude for streamlining the regulatory state.

Salamandyr said...

If he's serious, good on em. We've been needing this for decades.

The worst part, we seem to be adding more of these requirements every year. How many have you live in states that recently required some segment of utility company's finances be diverted to "alternative energy". Has this done anything other than increase our utility bills?

Original Mike said...

Coming from him, this is laughable.

george said...

So I assume we will be getting rid of Obamacare, financial reform, the drilling ban and pretty much everything else the guy has done since he took office. Cool!

Albireo said...

This is where they should have started with healthcare reform.

Wince said...

"Oh! Scissor me timbers."

Original Mike said...

@george: Exactly.

Fred4Pres said...

How about promoting Wisconsin human cheddar!

Rit said...

Obama's op-ed is amazingly vapid. It reads like a glommed together press release put together by a bunch of egg heads who know they have a problem with the business community but aren't quite sure how to put them at ease. Saccharin? How about CO2 you economy crushing dolts?

The Ghost said...

I'll bet this review will lead to more regulation in the end ...

bagoh20 said...

Is there a word for trying to accomplish something that you actually hope to fail at? For example: driving to your own wedding.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Yeah but will he create a big, new govt agency whose job it is to write & enforce regulations that eliminate and prevent excessive govt regulation? [snark]

Calypso Facto said...

I know this is a supposed review of EXISTING regulations, but he'd eliminate 80% of the investment angst immediately if he just said "I will not support any effort to implement Cap and Trade or Card Check during my administration."

What he actually said however, was that he will maintain all regulations that "protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth." I.e., after a show-review, nothing will be changed.

wv: urupto. I heard what you said, Mr. President, and I know what urupto.

bagoh20 said...

Let's call it "Regulation Regulation."

I'm Full of Soup said...

Btw, has any newspaper ever rejected an OPED submitted by a president?

"Dear Mr/ Mrs President: we have reviewed your OPED submission and are sorry to tell you that we receive hundreds of these every day and yours is just not good enough. Feel free to try again some other time."

Matthew Noto said...

President Obama (and her husband, too) will be a one-term President. He will have achieved the questionable distinction of having made Jimmy Carter look Statesman-like,by comparison. He won't even be voted out by his opposition, either; his own base will crucify him.

Can't close Gitmo.

Still in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it appears as if we'll soon be in Yemen, too. Pakistan is one more good riot away from Rogue State.

No Single Payer system.

Throws the Media under the bus after his Arizona Nuremburg Rally...errr..memorial speech.

The Christians haven't been marched to the ovens yet, and we still haven't surrendered to the Muslims on their timetable, either.

Coming soon: every public-sector union in this country is about to be screwed when states begin togointo default, and Obama -- with the connivance of Congressional Dems, and to the absolute glee of Repubs -- allows them to declare bankruptcyand abrogate those plush union contracts.

Now he does a 180 on Federal Regulation that will probably undo many of "Financial Reforms", Civil Rights, Education and EnvironMENTAL regs that Libtards have drooled over for the last 50 years.

If he thinks he's going to save himself by suddenly becoming the "moderate" he portrayed himself as, he's got another thing coming; It's far too late for that.

Expect to see Hitler-y start to position herself as the true left-winger...after she's spent somuch time trying to position herself as the true moderate -- in order to challenge him in two years.

Can't change fast enough to snooker the Middle and braindead elements of the Right, doesn't go the full Stalin to satisfy the Left.

Yes...one term. And he'll be lucky if the stress of all the flip-flopping and golf outings doesn't kill him first.

X said...

Despite a lot of heated rhetoric, our efforts over the past two years to modernize our regulations have led to smarter—and in some cases tougher—rules to protect our health, safety and environment. Yet according to current estimates of their economic impact, the benefits of these regulations exceed their costs by billions of dollars.

In my industry, the government claimed the additional regulations (mountains of paperwork) would save consumers $700 per transaction. In practice studies show the regs increased the cost to consumers by $1500 per transaction. I know that we increased prices by $1200 when the regs took effect.

bagoh20 said...

About once a week, I have a conversation with one of my employees that ends with: "That would be great, You want it, I want it, but our government won't allow it. Sorry, vote carefully."

jr565 said...

HUH? Is Obama suddenly for DERGEGULATION?
Are you kidding me?
Someone needs to make a video of all of Obama demagoguery on deregulation and on the War on TError and play it around the time of the elections, just to remind liberals what they are voting for. And how Obama demagogued these exact positions during the last election, and yet now seems like Bush light (except for the areas where he tried to be a european socialist).
Just to rub it in the liberals face how big hypocrites they actually are.
So now the libs are for escalating wars, deregulation, drone attacks, extending the Bush tax cuts etc. adfinitum.Good to know.

Toad Trend said...

Laughable.

Does anyone REALLY think the boy-king of the nanny-state is serious?

Their entire existence is based on exercising power over others. Creating crises, promoting strife, redistributing wealth, leveling the playing field.

Just as it is the MSM's interest to stir the pot and create problems that don't exist.

A duck is a duck.

This is just another distraction.

SGT Ted said...

The headline is comedy gold. These Harvard educated dopes really think that if they say it, people will automatically believe they are doing it.

The only red tape Onama and his Chicago gangster acolytes is that which inhibits their will to power and their desire to rule us, rather than govern us.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Matt said:
"Coming soon: every public-sector union in this country is about to be screwed when states begin togointo default, and Obama -- with the connivance of Congressional Dems, and to the absolute glee of Repubs -- allows them to declare bankruptcyand abrogate those plush union contracts. "

The interesting thing is how will the librul media play this? Will they report that the crisis was caused when pols signed labor agreements that the taxpayers could not afford and that, if the pols had used basis arithmetic, they would have known the contracts were unsustainable.

Or will the media create a narrative that this is another nail in the middle class when a subway worker, who perhaps has a GED, can no longer expect to retire with full benefits at age 50?

David said...

It's going to take a lot more than a boring oped to turn this around. His two signature pieces of legislation, Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, give unprecedented levels of discretion to unaccountable bureaucrats to hamstring two of the most important sectors of the economy.

You have to dismantle the apparatus, not tweak the regulations.

lemondog said...

Hahahaha.....what a kidder he is........hahahaha.

Who sez he doesn't have a sense of humor......

Tank said...

As with everything else.

Con Man.

Con Man gonna con.

End of story.

Matthew Noto said...

@AJ Lynch:

They will attempt tospin it in much the same way they try to spin everything else:

Nasty, greedy, racist, sexist, gun-nut, religious-zealot, violent knuckle-dragging Conservatives conspiring to pull down the carefully-constructed ediface that was built by Leftards for the Common Good of the Working Man. And for the Children.

Somehow, it will be explained as the republican's/conservative's fault that democrats bribed union workers for their votes with money that doesn't actually exist.

It will be George Bush and Sarah Palin's fault, if only you take enough drugs.

John Boehner will become the new Simon Lagree, Pol Pot, Hitler and Grinch all rolled up into one well-tanned, slacks-wearin', upper-middle-class-White Dude package.

And then Obama will go back on Vacation to the thunderous applause of Chris Matthews.

RobKleine said...

It seems that Obama's op-ed piece outlines how he intends to continue to circumvent the legislative process and use the regulatory process to achieve his political ambitions. This is news?

RobKleine said...

It seems that Obama's op-ed piece outlines how he intends to continue to circumvent the legislative process and use the regulatory process to achieve his political ambitions. This is news?

Anonymous said...

Clearly aimed at imbecilic "independent voters" who skitter hither and yon like dried leaves in the wind depending on the last sound bite that they've heard.

The independents are the most scatter brained voters of all, believing and standing on nothing, turning on a dime and swaying elections based on the pearly words they heard 5 minutes ago.

This mannequin president knew that, used it and walked right in.

It worked so well that now he is preparing to spoon feed these same independents the same gruel for the next two years.

They will lap it up.

If reelected, Obamas dive to the left will be meteoric and last the full 4 years, not like the catastrophic 2 that we all just lived through.

Anonymous said...

Let's not throw away a teachable moment here. After years of Democratic rhetoric which presupposes that the choice is between more regulations (yay!) and fewer regulations (boo!), here's an opening to introduce people to the idea that the difference that matters is between the right regulations and the wrong regulations.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Let's face it- Obama & the Dems are crapping their pants when they look at the jobs picture.

Opponents to Obama in 2012 should point out [again & again] that Obama screwed the pooch with his boondoggle Stimulus which wasted two years and why give him a 2nd term in office.

Jeez even Huckabee could beat Obama if he just kept reminding the voters that Obama wasted two frigging years in battling the recession.

Unknown said...

He really thinks we're stupid, doesn't he?

Or is this the "How to Funnel Money to Acorn Faster" act?

Original Mike said...

"The independents are the most scatter brained voters of all, believing and standing on nothing, turning on a dime and swaying elections based on the pearly words they heard 5 minutes ago."

Yeah, cuz the Republicans have done such a laudable job. :rolleyes:

Martha said...

AJ Lynch said...
Btw, has any newspaper ever rejected an OPED submitted by a president?

Probably not but the New York Times refused to publish an op-Ed by Senator McCain during the last campaign because the op-Ed offered no new insights.....if I remember correctly.

A.Worthing said...

its "smart regulation." should work out as well as "smart diplomacy."

http://patterico.com/2011/01/18/obama-announces-%e2%80%9csmart%e2%80%9d-regulation/

cubanbob said...

As much as I doubt it, I would like to take the president seriously on this. He can show he is serious by simply ordering all federal agencies to cease issuing regulations immediately and indefinitely followed by having congress create a blue-ribbon commission of economists to review all federal legislation, regulation and arising judicial rulings derived from those rules, regulations and legislation over the past 80 years that impeded economic growth. If the republicans were intelligent they would make such a suggestion public and praise him if he were to do it.

Rit said...

Come on. Obama is talking about saccharin, not CO2. When he shuts down the EPA's attempt to destroy energy production in this country via regulating a gas that we all exhale and that happens to make plants grow then we can start to believe he's serious.

MartyH said...

Remember when Obama promised to go through the budget "line by line" to eliminate unnecessary spending? I guess that he's finished that project and is sufficiently proud of his handiwork to turn his focus to reducing regulation. Heaven help us if he does as good a job at cutting regulation as he did at cutting spending.

Known Unknown said...

If only Don Imus looked like a man, instead of a woman not aging well.

Anonymous said...

"Yeah, cuz the Republicans have done such a laudable job. :rolleyes:"

Not my point at all.

Rick G said...

I think he will be take this just as seriously as he took his Debt Commission.

kimsch said...

Drop CPSIA first.

Hagar said...

My mother said that once, when my grandfather was a young subaltern, a lieutenant committed some offense that created a great uproar in the surrounding community and the media, etc.
The commanding general to care of that by issuing a general order that for the future, all junior officers on post would act with intelligence, tact, and discretion when dealing with the civilian population.

Michael said...

We would do well to advocate a "review" that concluded that most regulations can be thrown out the window. We should be willing to stipulate, however, that the "regulators" get to stay and collect their pay. Cheap at twice the price.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Rick G:

I would have teken the Deficit Commission more seriously if it had assigned some blame to long-serving Congress critters like McCain, Biden, Kerry, Grassley etc.

But the commission was stacked full of long-serving Congress critters so it was pretty much Kabuki theater IMO.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, remember when Obama was going to to through the budget line by line?

This activity will have the same priority and outcome...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

How much do you want to bet they determine that the rules requiring a secret ballot to unionize stymie economic growth?

Original Mike said...

Ignorance is wise.

Anonymous said...

Sanctimony is bliss.

Fearsome Pirate said...

I learned a couple years ago to watch what people do and ignore what they say. This is a great time to apply this lesson.

Fen said...

They should do what we do when we need a new budget - throw everything out, start from scratch. Turns out we don't need 2 phone bills or cable or that 3rd dinner out each week.

Zach said...

Is he going to do this before or after comprehensive tax reform, cap and trade, fixing the deficit, and the health care fight? Oh, and jobs. I forgot that the number one focus of this administration is on jobs.

This could potentially be a good idea, if you put a lot of talent and energy into it and followed through. But Obama is lazy; he doesn't have any follow through. Next week he'll have another top priority.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"Obama is lazy" . I agree and also remember when they said GW was lazy too.

Indigo Red said...

Read the headline and immediately thought of O.J.'s never-rest-search for the real killer of Nicole.

AST said...

What he needs to realize is that the majority of business people are honest, but the essence of entrepreneurship is taking risks. For the government to try to eliminate risk is to encourage ignorance among the investor class. The government can and should issue warnings, but recognize that federal regulations seldom prevent the next crisis. Did they prevent the BP blowout? No, but they'll cost us all more for fuel in the future.

Methadras said...

So he's going to make the FTC, SEC, FDA, USDA, DOE, et al. kinder, gentler regulatory bodies so he will be nicey-nice with American businesses?