Last Tuesday, the White House unveiled its plan to reduce and reform federal regulations. After the President’s promise in the State of the Union to ‘merge, consolidate and reorganize the federal government in a way that best serves the goal of a more competitive America,’ I was optimistic that his plan would provide real relief to businesses that are crumbling under the weight of overregulation. I was hopeful the administration had heard the pleas of American business owners and was willing to confront the out-of-control regulatory environment. Unfortunately, it seems that once again the President’s rhetoric did not yield any real results.
The plan put forth by the White House barely scratches the surface of the regulatory reform truly needed to get our economy back on track. It ignores many of the most burdensome and job-killing new federal regulations created by legislation like Dodd-Frank and the new healthcare reform law. In fact, the number of regulations projected to take effect this year is almost 15 percent higher than last year and will cost billions of dollars more.