Obama: Seven of My New Regulations Will All Cost At Least $1 Billion Apiece, Per Year

Put the emphasis on “at least.” The president made the admission in response to House Speaker John Boenhner’s letter to the president on August 26. In that letter, Boehner noted that the administration has 4,257 new regulatory actions in the works, and of those, more than 200 may cost $100 million or more.

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In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Obama lists four proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules and three Department of Transportation rules estimated to cost in excess of $1 billion. One of the proposed EPA rules — an update to the health-based standard for smog — is estimated to cost the economy between $19 billion and $90 billion.

The letter, dated Tuesday, comes as the Republican-controlled House prepares to consider legislation that would require congressional approval for any new regulations that would impose a significant cost on industries.

The four environmental regulations, which target air pollution and coal residue primarily from coal-fired power plants, have already been attacked by House Republicans, who have said they would kill jobs and harm the economy.

The president went on from that admission, to say something that isn’t true.

The president said the seven proposals he did identify are not final and that his administration will “give careful consideration” to cost-savings. He said his administration already has made changes that have saved more than $10 billion in regulatory costs over the next five years, and said new regulations must meet cost-saving requirements that he ordered earlier this year.

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The administration has given the EPA’s cross-state pollution rule such “careful consideration” that it included Texas at the last minute, despite the findings of the EPA’s own scientists that Texas’ pollution effect on other states is negligible. The president doesn’t address either facts in his letter.

And left off the president’s list entirely: ObamaCare.

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