WASHINGTON – As President Obama talks about making America more competitive in his State of the Union address tonight, center-right advocacy group Crossroads GPS urges viewers to compare the President’s rhetoric with his anticompetitive regulatory agenda, and urge him to start the process by repealing the new rules and regulations that started on his watch.
According to an analysis of GAO data by the Heritage Foundation, federal agencies promulgated 43 rules during the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010 alone, which impose significant burdens on the private sector. The costs of these regulations total more than $28 billion, significantly higher than any year on record.
“A truly impactful competitiveness agenda would start with President Obama putting the brakes on his own administration,” said Steven Law, president of American Crossroads. “No amount of new government spending on ‘competitiveness’ can break the hammerlock that President Obama’s regulatory agencies are putting on job creation and economic growth.”
Below are just a few of Obama’s regulatory and legislative policies which, if reversed, would immediately foster more competition and a better environment for both small and large businesses. If Mr. Obama is serious about competitiveness, he’d start with reversing course on these:
ObamaCare’s burdensome new requirement on 1099 tax forms: Some 40 million businesses, charities, and nonprofits face new byzantine paperwork requirements due to the ObamaCare legislation:
- According to the IRS Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, at IRS.gov (see pages 9-10): “A provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), enacted in March of [2010], added a new information reporting requirement that may present significant administrative challenges to taxpayers and the IRS. In particular, businesses will have to issue Forms 1099 for goods purchased after 2011, regardless of the corporate form of the vendor. … The new reporting burden, particularly as it falls on small businesses, may turn out to be disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance. … The PPACA provision would apply to businesses of all sizes, charities and other tax-exempt organizations, and government entities. These would include, as reflected in IRS data, 26 million non-farm sole proprietorships, four million S corporations, two million C corporations, three million partnerships, two million farming businesses, one million charities and other tax-exempt organizations, and probably more than 100,000 federal, state, and local government entities. … This new requirement has generated a great deal of concern because of its potential to create administrative burdens for businesses, vendors, and the IRS.” (“National Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress 2011,” IRS.gov,http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/nta2011objectivesfinal..pdf)
EPA’s anti-energy regulations: The administration’s anti-energy regulatory agenda has all but stopped new power generation, with 29 new regulations and 172 major policy rules:
- “The scale of the EPA’s current assault is unprecedented, yet it has received almost no public scrutiny. Since Mr. Obama took office, the agency has proposed or finalized 29 major regulations and 172 major policy rules. This surge already outpaces the Clinton Administration’s entire first term—when the EPA had just been handed broad new powers under the 1990 revamp of air pollution laws. … A case study in the [EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s] method is the EPA’s recent tightening of air-quality standards for sulfur dioxide…. The uncertainty created by the SO2 rule and similar rule-makings has resulted in a near-total freeze on EPA permits, imposing a de facto project moratorium that will last for the next 18 months at minimum. North Dakota, Texas, Louisiana, South Dakota and Nevada are already suing the EPA because of the restrictions they now face on their “ability to permit new sources or expand existing sources,” and many more states are expected to join them” (“The EPA Permatorium,” The Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2011)
Job losses and higher energy prices because of Obama’s offshore drilling restrictions: More than 20,000 workers are unemployed or underemployed due to regulations on offshore drilling:
- “Because the Interior Department stopped issuing permits after the BP well blew out in 2010, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has ground to a halt, with 33 rigs idled, a decline of $1.8 billion in spending by oil drillers, and 23,000 workers unemployed or underemployed. (“Obama Approaches Regulations Backwards,“ RealClearMarkets.com, January 20, 2011)
ObamaCare’s 159 new boards and bureaucracies: ObamaCare includes at least 159 new offices, agencies, and programs, and will likely generate more than 30,000 pages of regulations, many of which will impact businesses and America’s health care sector in numerous ways:
- “ObamaCare includes 159 new offices, agencies, and programs. The word “secretary” shows up in the ObamaCare legislation 3,267 times. “Fees” and “Penalty” or “Penalties” show up 450 times. … The 2,700-page ObamaCare legislation will likely generate over 30,000 pages of regulations and guidelines. More than 700 new regulators have been hired to write the new rules. Over 17,000 new IRS agents will enforce new purchasing mandates, administrative mandates, income limits, fees, and penalties. Each new agency will write rules and guidelines to define and restrict choice.” (“Health Reform: Going Forward or Backward,” The Daily Caller, September 28, 2010)
Crossroads GPS is a policy and grassroots advocacy organization that is committed to educating, equipping and mobilizing millions of American citizens to take action on the critical economic and legislative issues that will shape our nation’s future in the years ahead.
For more information, contact Jonathan Collegio at [email protected] or (202) 559-6424.
