Regulation Nation
“[T]here's got to be some simplification of regulations in the United States. The fact is, is that GE and IBM and J.P. Morgan, we're big enough companies that we can muscle through regulatory, you know, pressure. We can comply, we can do the things we need to do. If you're a $50 million business, it's just so much harder.”
—General Electric CEO, Jeff Immelt, head of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, September 18, 2011
Recently the House Committee on Financial Services released a “Dodd-Frank Burden Tracker” highlighting the administrative yoke restricting the economy as a result of Democrats’ permanent bailout of Wall Street law.
- The Committee calculates that from the 185 rules written (of the 400 rules required by the 2,300 page law), it will take more than 24,000,000 (yes, million) man hours to comply with the regulations. For more details, go here.
There is no report yet from the Obama administration or proponents of the law on how many jobs will not be created because companies are spending those 24,000,000 hours (and the associated salary costs) filling out paperwork and responding to regulators whims instead of creating new products or expanding their business.
More red tape = less economic fairness
The committee’s findings are even more troubling considering a recent survey of Americans’ attitudes about fairness in society and the type of technocratic solutions (i.e. regulations) preferred by President Obama and Democrats in Congress.
- The April 2012 survey by Rasmussen Reports found that 50 percent of Americans “think society would become less fair if the government got more involved in regulating the economy.” [emphasis added] Only 22 percent believe the opposite.
House Republicans have a Plan for America’s Job Creators—it’s time for the President and Senate Democrats to stop blocking our bipartisan jobs bills. More info in the “Win the Debate” kit—“Cutting Red Tape to Create Jobs”—can be found here.
For additional information, contact:
The House Republican Conference Policy Office
