Timeout needed from control freak regulations

Susan Collins:

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to a company that sells packaged walnuts. Believe it or not, the federal government claimed the walnuts were being marketed as a drug. So Washington ordered the company to stop telling consumers about the health benefits of walnuts.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule on fossil-fuel emissions from boilers that—by the EPA's own admission—would cost the private sector billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. The owner of a small business in Maine told me the proposed rule would require him to scrap a new, $300,000 wood waste boiler he recently installed.

No wonder America's employers dread what is coming next out of Washington. Our country cannot afford regulations run amok at a time when no net new jobs are created and unemployment remains above 9%. But at least we're safe from health claims about walnuts.

America's overregulation problem is only getting worse. Right now, federal agencies are at work on more than 4,200 rules, 845 of which affect small businesses, the engine of job creation in our country. More than 100 are major rules, with an economic impact of more than $100 million each.

No business owner I know questions the legitimate role of limited government in protecting our health and safety. Too often, however, our small businesses are buried under a mountain of paperwork that drives up costs, prevents the hiring of workers, and impedes economic growth.

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There is more.

Walnuts are good for you despite what the FDA might think.  So are blueberries and maple syrup, as well as tangerines.  It is not like the producers of these foods are promoting arsenic.  Since Obama has come to office he has been on a regulatory binge that is choking the economy and killing jobs while he is out promoting more wasteful spending that will have little impact on long term employment.  Lifting regulation would have a dramatic impact on job creation if it is done on a long term basis.  In the oil and gas industry it would permit the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and produce badly needed revenue to the government.  Obama and his regulators are the problem here.