House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has posted a list of what he terms the Top 10 Job-Destroying Regulations. This is the first list I’ve seen that spells out the most destructive regulations on the move, out of the 4,257 regulations set for implementation this year. Here’s the list. On his blog, Rep. Cantor goes into detail about each one. The dates in parentheses are targets for the House to take them up and repeal them as part of its larger jobs agenda.
1. NLRB’s Boeing Ruling (Week of September 12)
2. Utility MACT and CSAPR (Week of September 19)
3. Boiler MACT (Week of October 3)
4. Cement MACT (Week of October 3)
5. Coal Ash (October/November)
6. Grandfathered Health Plans (November/December)
7. Ozone Rule (Winter)
8. Farm Dust (Winter)
9. Greenhouse Gas (Winter)
10. NLRB’s Ambush Elections (Winter)
The House will begin taking these regulations up for repeal in a couple of weeks. Repeal would depend on the Democratically controlled Senate, of course. But President Obama could unilaterally repeal all but the NLRB action via executive order today if he really wants to get the economy moving again (whether or not he can overrule the NLRB is less clear).
I think the GOP should put the focus on the president to act. He is unlikely to do it; these regulations fit his overall agenda and represent, for him and many of his supporters, policy successes. But pushing him to act while defining the damage these regulations will do highlights that he is choosing to allow these job killers to move ahead, and exposes everything else he says about economic growth to be either clueless or disingenuous. He can’t vote present on this, and can’t be allowed to hide behind the bureaucracy that he controls. Make him answer directly for what his minions are doing to the US economy.
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