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© 2011 The Union Label Blog & Grassfire Nation
Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, but looking back on the past 12 months, it’s tough to see any sense in many of the Administration’s regulatory missteps. Of course, there are bound to be a few howlers when government churns out more than 3,500 rules in a year, including dozens unleashed by Obamacare, Dodd–Frank, and the perpetually errant Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But by any standard, 2011 brought forth a remarkable number and variety of regulatory blunders.
Fair warning: Our Top 10 list may prove fatal to any bit of faith in government as a “fixer,†if faith somehow has managed to survive despite all evidence to the contrary. In any event, it should steel our resolve to fight the Leviathan in the coming year.
1. The Dim Bulbs Rule. As per Congress, of course, for issuing an edict to phase out the incandescent light bulbs on which the world has relied for more than a century. With the deadline looming in 2012, Americans by the millions spent the past year pressing lawmakers to lift the ban which, contrary to eco-ideology, will kill more American jobs than create “green†ones. (Congress evidently overlooked the fact that the vast majority of fluorescent bulbs are manufactured in China.) The 2012 appropriations bill barred the use of funds to enforce the regulation, but it remains in law.
2. The Obamacare Chutzpah Rule. The past year was marked by a slew of competing court rulings on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the cornerstone of Obamacare. The law requires U.S. citizens to obtain health insurance or face financial penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. Never before has the federal government attempted to force all Americans to purchase a product or service. To allow this regulatory overreach to stand would undermine fundamental constitutional constraints on government powers and curtail individual liberties to an unprecedented degree.
3. The Nationalization of Internet Networks Rule. Regulations that took effect on November 1 prohibit owners of broadband networks from differentiating among various content in managing Internet transmissions. (In other words, the Federal Coercion Communications Commission effectively declared the broadband networks to be government-regulated utilities.) The FCC imposed the “network neutrality†rule despite explicit opposition from Congress and a federal court ruling against it. The rule threatens to undermine network investment and increase online congestion.
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10. The Unions Rule Rule. New rules require government contractors to give first preference in hiring to the workers of the company that lost the contract. Tens of thousands of companies will be affected, with compliance costs running into the tens of millions of dollars—costs ultimately borne by taxpayers. The rule effectively ensures that a non-unionized contractor cannot replace a unionized one. That’s because any new contractor will be obliged to hire its predecessors’ unionized workers and thus be forced by the “Successorship Doctrine†to bargain with the union(s).
See the full list at The Heritage Foundation.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Barack Obama is very successful at one thing: the bait and switch. He stands before America presenting a picture of a hard-working moderate and claims that he wants to work with the Republicans to get things done. In reality he won’t even meet with them. He talks about compromise, but never offers any. He mouths kind words abut the business sector but uses his powers to make new regulations to destroy its profitability. In short, he’s a radical even though he doesn’t play one on TV. His modus operandi is to assume most voters are too stupid, lazy, or disinterested to compare his hope-n-change rhetoric with his actions.
Obama’s penchant for bypassing Congress and making radical changes to regulations in order to push his far left agenda is a case in point. Obama’s push to radicalize the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and turn it from a non-partisan watchdog agency into a tool for Big Labor is a perfect example of how the President uses regulations to achieve what he and the far left cannot do with legislation. It is also an example of how he is trying to radically change America under the radar of most voter’s notice.
This month Obama’s far left, Big Labor controlled appointees to the NLRB are trying to push in a new rule on the fast track. That rule would take away much of the time that businesses currently have to prepare for the employees of their businesses to vote on whether or not they want to become unionized but would not take away any of the time that unions have to cajole employees to vote yes. This puts employers at a severe disadvantage.
The Wall Street Journal’s one paragraph explanation works well to inform of the crux of the matter.
Originally floated in June as a proposed rule-making, the plan would shorten to as little as 10 to 14 days the period between the time a union seeks an election to organize a work site and the election date. Under current rules, companies typically have five to six weeks to make their case to employees before the union holds a secret-ballot election. The Becker-Pearce putsch would give labor organizers months to quietly pitch workers, then give targeted companies less than two weeks to react and make their own case before a quickie election.
Those that stand against Obama’s constant favors to Big Labor — all for millions in campaign donations, of course — do have one short term weapon to stop this fast tracked attack on the business sector. The last remaining Republican appointee to the NLRB can resign.
If NLRB Commissioner Brian Hayes does this the board will not have enough members for a quorum and no further regulatory changes can be made until next year when Obama can begin to fill the board out anew.
But there is a further reason why Hayes might — and should — resign. Contrary to standing three-vote rule that has been an NLRB practice for several presidents, the two Democrats have said that they will push the rule through with only their two votes quite regardless what Hayes has to say about it. It is this lawless arrogance that has characterized every single appointee that Obama has installed throughout every board and agency in Washington over which he has power.
Even more arrogantly, the President’s extremists on the NLRB has even announced that they are going to deny Hayes the traditional 90-day period to review their rule and write a dissent. Obama’s power-mad, extremists intend to simply pass the rule regardless of all the rules and practices of the very board upon which they serve. They just don’t care about the process.
Naturally, even as the President’s appointees are breaking rules right and left, Big Labor is saying that it is Hayes’ fault. The only guy on the board that is trying to keep the agency on track to obeying its own rules and history, the only guy trying to be fair is the one Big Labor is attacking.
It all goes to show that President Barack Obama is the most lawless, most extremely leftist president we’ve ever had.
-By Beth Shaw
[Ed's note: I now this is not about unions per se, it is about regulations crushing our energy sector. But, to be sure this post is tangential to unions because unions are usually the beneficiary of these regulations in this administration. Some of these regulations are made to benefit unions. It is also good to note that this sort of business-destroying regulatory scheme exists in many ways other than simply favoring unions.]
Will a Lloyd Dobler economy save us? That’s the question being asked around the internet today and we can surely expect more of that sort of question as we are seeing more and more headlines of looming economic disaster, both nationally and globally.
What is getting in the way of the United States creating, building, producing and hiring?
From Rick Manning at The Hill:
In Alaska, one of the most significant finds of copper, gold and molybdenum (hardens steel) in U.S. history was discovered. Yet almost a decade later — and more than $125 million of environmental and cultural studies later — the Pebble Mine is still being subjected to Environmental Protection Agency review. A review that is at best likely to demand that tens of millions more dollars be spent for additional studies encompassing an area roughly equal to the states of Maryland and New Jersey combined. All to open one mine and put 2,000 miners to work.
To make matters worse, the ore won’t be processed in the U.S., because our domestic copper smelting capacity has been cut by about 60 percent in the past 20 years. More jobs lost largely on the altar of environmental regulation.
This is just one of myriad examples of how our nation’s obsession with litigation and environmental regulation has turned us into a place where employers cannot afford to create jobs. It is cheaper and more profitable to do it elsewhere.
Just think about what this means for our economy! There are jobs that aren’t being created and minerals our country can’t use because of environmental regulations and law suits! Not to mention the tax-dollars that are being spent to impose the EPA reviews and regulations. Pebble Mine is just one of many around the country that are struggling under the weight of this bureaucratic nightmare. Not to mention that ‘We the People’ are suffering as a result of high unemployment rates and high energy costs while we have everything we need to solve these problems within our own borders…
More at ResourcefulEarthNews.org
