Some rules are needed but there are just too many that are 'downright inane'
WASHINGTON, DC, Aug 19 - "They call it The Ten Thousand Commandments Report because if you don't comply with the regulations created by Capitol bureaucrats - not our elected lawmakers - you'll have hell to pay. It's a publication of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which says that the cost of complying in the country has steadily increased in recent years and now stands at a whopping $15,000 for each and every household. That's nearly $2 trillion in burdensome costs at a time when the nation is in hot water economically," reports Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.
Weber notes that there are some regulations that make sense and deserve to be created and enforced, but there are those regulations that make little or no sense and are downright inane.
"Do we need a regulation prohibiting churches from selling tombstones so as not to upset commercial monument makers or the one that requires you to purchase insurance that includes birth control coverage? And then there is the one that expands the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to include even puddles on a farm. These are just a few examples of the kinds of frivolous directives that so-called government watchdogs create every year," Weber explains.
The CEI says that the compliance cost of regulations this year will come to a total of $1.9 trillion. That's more than the IRS collects on personal and corporate income taxes, according to CEI vice president Clyde Wayne Crews Jr.
Crews points out that while Congress enacted just 114 laws last year, federal agencies issued 3,410 rules. So far this year, with nearly four and half months left till the New Year, the administration's various agencies have issued or are preparing to issue 3,297 regulations with more to come.
"The cost of regulations and the impact these rules have on our daily lives gets little notice. Perhaps it is because the rules are imposed without benefit of debate. It is about time, therefore, that we encourage those who we elected to be our eyes and ears inside the beltway to do what they were sent there to do-to protect our interests, Weber concludes.
He says that the issue of government regulatory authority run-amok is not a political issue. It's an American issue that requires bi-partisan attention because we simply can't afford the nearly $2 trillion dollar price tag, Weber.
"Some believe that the Executive Branch uses its regulatory authority to bypass Congress because it's easier to make rulings instead of enacting laws, especially when the opposition outnumbers the president's party in both the Senate and the House . But whether they are right or wrong, the fact is that under this administration we've earned the moniker, Regulation Nation."
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