Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs

The Republican version is Regulations, Regulations, Everywhere There’s Regulations. The GOP party jobs bill has as one of its goals is to reduce regulations…

Empower Small Business Owners and Reduce Regulatory Burdens:

• Require congressional review and approval of any government regulations that have a significant impact on the economy or burden small businesses.
• Audit existing and pending regulations to identify and address those that hinder economic growth.

They think that this will be the magic bullet that will create jobs. I ask, if this was true, then how come we went into the recession during the Bush administration? The economy should have been booming instead of tanking in 2008.

CNN Money report says,

Regulation: Not the job killer GOP says
By Charles Riley
October 14, 2011
[…]
Not so much, according to government data and surveys of business owners and economists.

Only a small percentage of employers report regulation as a reason for laying off workers.

In the first two quarters of this year, only 2,085 new unemployment claims were attributed to government regulation, while 55,759 were tied to insufficient demand, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data on mass layoffs.

Furthermore, less than 20% of small business owners cite government regulations as their most important problem, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.

The article goes on to say why the economy is not recovering

So if not regulations -- what is the biggest problem? One prime suspect is a lack of demand for the goods and services that businesses produce.

"I think it's pretty plain that there hasn't been a robust rebound in consumer consumption," Burtless said.

And CNN is not alone in saying that it is not regulations that are holding back the economy.

Regulations, taxes aren't killing small business, owners say
McClatchy Newspapers
By Kevin G. Hall
September 1, 2011

"Government regulations are not 'choking' our business, the hospitality business," Bernard Wolfson, the president of Hospitality Operations in Miami, told The Miami Herald. "In order to do business in today's environment, government regulations are necessary and we must deal with them. The health and safety of our guests depend on regulations. It is the government regulations that help keep things in order."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among the most vocal critics of the Obama administration, blaming excessive regulation and the administration's overhaul of health care laws for creating an environment of uncertainty that's hampering job creation.

When it's asked what specific regulations harm small businesses _which account for about 65 percent of U.S. jobs — the Chamber of Commerce points to health care, banking and national labor. Yet all these issues weigh much more heavily on big corporations than on small business.

It is big companies that are crying wolf, not the small businesses. CBS News reported last year that,

But the jobs are going elsewhere. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies have created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year, compared with less than 1 million in the U.S. The additional 1.4 million jobs would have lowered the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.9 percent, says Robert Scott, the institute's senior international economist.

The big corporations are not interested in creating jobs, but in profits... the almighty dollar.

Besides healthcare what regulations that the GOP are against…

House Republicans Pass Coal Ash Regulations, Shift Power Away From EPA
Huffington Post
JIM ABRAMS
10/14/11

WASHINGTON — House Republicans pushed through legislation Friday that gives the states the power to regulate coal ash from power plants as if it were municipal garbage, pre-empting pending federal regulations that could be much tougher.

The vote on coal ash disposal was the latest of several passed by the GOP-controlled House that would shift authority away from the Environmental Protection Agency and reduce federal regulations that Republicans say are burdensome, hamper economic growth and cost jobs.

Other bills have dealt with toxic emissions from power plants, cement plants and incinerators. Like those bills, the coal ash bill is unlikely to be considered in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Coal ash is not garbage, it is made up of heavy metal like mercury, lead, chromium and other toxic materials. Pollution is a national issue, not a state issue, pollution travels across state-line.

In a Los Angeles Times editorial they write…

A GOP assault on environmental regulations
Republicans, though correct that environmental regulations cost money, are oblivious to the public health consequences of pollution and the economic costs of inaction.
October 10, 2011

Republicans in the House are best known for their inflexible opposition to tax hikes and government spending, but that's nothing new for the GOP; what marks this group as different is that it is perhaps the most anti-environment Congress in history. So far, that hasn't had much impact because Republicans control only one house, and Democrats in the Senate have blocked their most extreme attempts to gut the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. But recent legislative moves in the House provide a preview of what's to come in 2013 if the balance of power shifts further in favor of a GOP that is more united than ever in opposition to environmental regulation.
[…]
On Thursday, the House approved HR 2681, which would prevent the EPA from cracking down on emissions from cement kilns, a major source of mercury pollution. When ingested by pregnant women and children, mercury causes significant damage to developing brains. Up next is HR 2250, which is also widely expected to pass the House. It blocks the EPA from considering tougher standards against industrial boilers, another key source of mercury, lead and arsenic.

I don’t know about you, but I am old enough to remember what it was like to live with smog. I remember sitting in traffic and smelling un-burnt gas and seeing columns of blue smoke rising above the cars. I remember that Hartford us to have 50 - 60 days of smog alerts during the summer months compared to 5 or 6 no a days. I don’t want to go back to those days.