We're Being Regulated to Death

Somewhere out there is a postulate that states, "More government equals less freedom." And if there isn't one there should be, because that's one of the unwritten rules of life.

Here's another one: the way our form of government is constructed, we're free to do as we please unless and until there's a law against something. This is why no one needs a busy Congress, for if they're busy writing laws, they're busy making sure we're all less free.

Now that I've established The Backwards Political Postulate, here's a story you won't like if you love your freedom, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: Regulator Without Peer.

Congress may be mired in gridlock, but the federal bureaucracy is busier than ever. In 2013 the Federal Register contained 3,659 "final" rules, which means they now must be obeyed, and 2,594 proposed rules on their way to becoming orders from political headquarters.

 If you wonder why our economy is in the shitter, wonder no more. We'll never see a robust economy again until we start electing people who will dedicate their lives to reducing the size, expense, and intrusiveness of the federal government.

How a Capitalist Sees the Economy - No Goggles!

By the way, I hereby declare today to be Economics Monday.

Here's the perfect palate cleanser for the previous post. So read the one below this one first, then read this one.

I'll wait.

Here's a WSJ.com post by Arthur Laffer entitled, The Real Stimulus Record." In it, Mr. Laffer very neatly presents the facts countering the radical-leftist view that the federal government can cure all our economic ills, and that we have the very best people in charge of the economy.

Therein lies the fundamental problem. We capitalists know instinctively that governmental intrusion into a formerly free market can cause nothing but problems and a contraction of economic activity.

Here's some goodness and wisdom from Mr. Laffer...

If you believe, as I do, that the macro economy is the sum total of all of its micro parts, then stimulus spending really doesn't make much sense. In essence, it's when government takes additional resources beyond what it would otherwise take from one group of people (usually the people who produced the resources) and then gives those resources to another group of people (often to non-workers and non-producers).

Here, Laffer pokes a hole in Nancy Pelosi's Theory of Government Trickle-Down, where she insists that government spending has a "multiplier effect" of something like 1.6%, and is the basis for continued commitment to food stamps and welfare as the foundations of our economy, instead of the private free market.

Sorry, Keynesians. There was no discernible two or three dollar multiplier effect from every dollar the government spent and borrowed. In reality, every dollar of public-sector spending on stimulus simply wiped out a dollar of private investment and output, resulting in an overall decline in GDP. This is an even more astonishing result because government spending is counted in official GDP numbers. In other words, the spending was more like a valium for lethargic economies than a stimulant.

 I'd say the Stimulus Bill was more like a Roofie slipped into our economic drink. It has allowed the proponents of big-government policies to, shall we say, take advantage of us while we were asleep.

Good and hard.

Want some proof? Here's the handy, dandy pocket guide to Romney vs. Obama's "Investments."

Obama Outregulates Bush, Crushes Economy

Here are some figures to show how the Obama administration is choking the life out of our economy.

Look on these numbers as the tread pattern of the boot on our economy's neck, if you will.

In sharp contrast to historical precedent, regulators have been unleashed on businesses during President Obama’s tenure. In the first three years of the Obama presidency, 106 major regulations adding annual costs of $46 billion were issued. The data show that more than three times the regulations have taken effect across the Obama administration’s first three years than over the same period in the Bush administration, and those regulations have extracted more than five times the amount of resources out of the economy's productive sector than those issued under Bush. Not coincidentally, the length of the federal register has increased to more than 82,000 pages in 2010 and 2011.

The increase in the cost of federal regulations has been large enough to significantly impact the total regulatory burden across all levels of government. The 2012 Cost of Government Report found that Americans will work 69 days in 2012 to pay for the cost of all regulations. In each year from 2009-2011 it took 72, 71, and 71 days of work to pay for regulatory costs; those figures are dramatically elevated from the 53-54 days of work it took annually to pay for the costs of regulation throughout the Bush administration.
(emphasis mine, BB)

Read the whole thing and remember: anything government has done, government can undo.

We need some undoing in Washington something fierce.

We are a Nation of Regulations Under Obama

Cause and effect. It's one of the many simple things progressives can't seem to grasp, like elementary mathematics.

So let's work this problem backwards.

Here's the effect: a stagnant economy with skyrocketing unemployment.

Here's the cause: an avalanche of regulations from the Obama administration.

The way in which our system of government is constructed, we are free to do everything unless there is a law against it. This is what makes us the exception to the rest of the world where the government holds the power and allows the citizenry to do things.

More laws generate more regulations. More laws and regulations inhibit freedom and strangle the economy. So, if you want more freedom and more money in your pocket, you should be finding and voting for candidates who understand and support regulatory reform. And don't accept any excuses from them: If they don't repeal laws and reduce regulations, vote them out and replace them with people who will.

It really is that simple.

This Post Brought to You by the Letter P - A Child's First Book of Government Regulations

Here's a good chuckle to get you started this morning: A Child's First Book of Government Regulations by Doug Ross.

"P" is for Progressive, "I" is for Idiot...

Why Our Economy Sucks – Congress Makes Highest Number of Laws Since 1960’s

Succinct, that’s how this Bloomberg article puts it. “The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s.”

Thanks a lot.

In order for this story to have its full effect (that is, to pour yourself a stiff drink even if it is 9 a.m.), you only need to understand one principle; we are free to do anything unless there’s a law specifically preventing it. This simple concept is the heart and soul of American exceptionalism. Other countries need permission from their governments to do something, placing them in a far different position than us. They are restricted from the beginning whereas we start from the premise of freedom.

It’s also curious that this little nugget of information, as important as it is, isn’t as widely known as it should be. If it was, I’m certain that there would be much more discontent with the current political atmosphere in Washington. Not that there isn’t already, as demonstrated by the loss of the House to Republican control in the last election.

Still, this is terrible news for freedom-loving Americans. It also explains why our economy has ground to a halt. It’s clear that Congress is legislating us to death.

I should probably introduce another principle for to help you understand how this is bad for the country. This is the principle of cause and effect. Allow me to explain.

Things don’t just happen spontaneously; they have an origin, a cause. After the cause has occurred, the result is the effect. Also, understand that the effect can then become another cause.

In the engineering world, when there is a failure, you want to know what caused it in order to prevent another failure. This is known as Root Cause Analysis.

In our situation, we have legislators creating law, which, by definition, restrict our actions, resulting in less freedom. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves in an economic morass, with record high levels of unemployment and poverty? The cause is too many laws, the effect is economic devastation.

Again, thanks a lot, Nancy, Harry, and Barack. Heckuva job you’ve done there.

Now that we know what caused our problems, we can start to solve them. We can roll back the new laws by any means available to us in this new Congress, be it the filibuster, defunding or repeal. However, repeal of any new law will be highly unlikely with this president. But brace yourself, Effie, there will be howls from the Democrats and those on the left (but I repeat myself) who somehow think they’re doing the will of the people by passing laws at a record pace. What they’re really doing is reducing our freedom, just as hard and as fast as they can.

Let them howl. Let them scream until their voices give out, then, when we can no longer hear their bleating, tell them that their efforts to constrict our lives has failed and they can go back to wherever it is they came from and take their power-mad ways with them.

We will be free once more.