Free Republic

“We have to look at the root cause of why the economy is struggling as much as it is,” Santorum said. “Government intervention. Government regulation. Government taxation. Government is crushing and destroying the American spirit and the American free enterprise system.” Santorum said that government spending was impinging on personal freedoms and ultimately chipping away at what made the country great. “When the government gets as big as it’s gotten and starts to take over more of your life, then you get smaller as the individual, you get weaker, you lose control over your lives. You lose the rights that...

Navistar International Corp on Thursday confirmed that it has received notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of an investigation into diesel-engine production that could lead to as much as $285 million in fines. In a letter dated Jan. 30, the EPA informed the Lisle, Illinois truck and engine maker that it is investigating whether 7,600 engines built in 2009 were properly certified under the Clean Air Act. Each violation carries a fine of up to $37,500. The engines in question were so-called transition engines, or engines built at a time when the company was preparing to launch a new...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday his department would formally unveil its highly anticipated rules for hydraulic fracturing on federal lands in “a few weeks.” The Interior Department has worked on a trio of rules that would require companies operating on federal lands to disclose the chemicals in their fracturing fluids (with a trade-secret exemption), impose standards meant to ensure wells can withstand fracturing and require companies to explain how they plan to dispose of flowback water. “If we are going to be successful, the public needs to have confidence that fracking operations are being conducted safely, and that drinking...

Your Friday IRS regulation dump: Obamacare’s job-killing medical device tax Share By Michelle Malkin • February 3, 2012 04:21 PM If it’s Friday, it’s another White House dump day. Cue the dump truck horn: Doot! Doot! Doot! While Obama sycophants are busy trumpeting deceptive jobs numbers, the administration is quietly moving forward with job-killing Obamacare regs and taxes. The IRS today released rules to impose the $20 billion Obamacare medical device tax scheduled to take effect next year. At a time when the White House is touting its government initiatives to champion “innovation,” the Obamacare innovation tax on medical device/diagnostic...

I am a medical sociologist, which means I study the health of whole societies. I've spent more than 20 years studying the best possible ways to address alcohol problems in societies -- what works and what doesn't to protect people from harm. I work as a professor in the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and at the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. This allows me to connect with other scientists who come from very different backgrounds but who want to work together on big problems -- think of a Manhattan Project, only one focused on protecting...

TOWANDA - While Bradford County has experienced extensive gas drilling for a few years, what will it be like after the drilling has gone on for decades? The three Bradford County commissioners and other local officials had a chance to get a sense of what could happen when they traveled last week to participate in a two-day conference in Lea County, N.M.

This year will mark another push for aggressive food regulation at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On tap, salt regulations and industrywide regulations dictating which foods can be advertised on television. In October 2011, the FDA announced in the Federal Register that it would begin accepting comments on “approaches to reducing sodium consumption.” The announcement cited 2005 medical studies’ findings that excess sodium consumption is a contributory factor in the development of hypertension. Yet studies conducted subsequent to that 2005 study came to different conclusions. For instance, in 2006, the American Journal of Medicine published a study of 78...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Seeking to influence other states and Washington, California air regulators passed sweeping auto emission standards Friday that include a mandate to have 1.4 million electric and hybrid vehicles on state roads by 2025.

Government regulators, environmental groups and the news media tell us that the air we breathe is polluted, the water we drink is tainted, our orange juice contains a fungicide, and evil corporations are hoping to make a profit at Mother Earth’s expense. They also remind us that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies are protecting us by fighting the greedy capitalists who seek our destruction. Don’t believe it. The United States is among the cleanest nations on the planet.

First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday unveiled tougher nutrition standards that school meals will have to meet starting this year. The new standards were required by the 2010 school nutrition bill that increased funding for school meals. The new regulations, according to the Department of Agriculture, will: Ensure that students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week; Substantially increase offerings of whole grain-rich foods; Offer only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties; Limit calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; and Increase the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated...

Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits. The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit. The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100...

The Pepsi Beverages Co. paid a $3.1 million fine to settle federal charges of racial discrimination in its hiring. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) assessed the fine, declaring that “screening job applicants for prior criminal records disproportionately affects blacks and Hispanics.” “Everyone knows that minorities are more likely to be criminals than whites are,” said EEOC spokesman Clem Clodpate. “Consequently, screening for previous criminal history is, ipso facto, discriminatory.” “Besides, Pepsi failed to demonstrate a business need for excluding criminals from being hired,” Clodpate added. “Who’s to say that a person with a criminal record couldn’t adequately perform the...

Hong Kong has retained its position as the world's freest economy, according to a ranking compiled by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Singapore ranked second, followed by Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. The index evaluates economic freedom by looking at the rule of law, regulatory efficiency, the size of government and open markets. The 2012 report said that economic freedom for the world as a whole had declined over the past year. "Most of that decline is due to a large increase in government spending worldwide," said Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation. "Governments have justified this...

SOCORRO, N.M. January 10, 2012 – As oil companies deploy hundreds of wells in northeast Pennsylvania to tap into the lucrative “shale gas” deposits, many are weighing the environmental impacts, the economic outlook and the regulatory climate related to the latest bonanza in domestic natural gas production.

In the midst of all this talk of jobs and wars and families, one of the issues the Republican presidential candidates have not addressed that much is the internet. Specifically, their positions on regulating the internet. Over the weekend, Rick Santorum was asked by a New Hampshire resident during a campaign stop if he supported or opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would give the government more authority to regulate the internet and crack down harder on piracy. Considering how much the Republican party of late has been concerned with government overreach, Santorum has been a surprisingly strong...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is warning employers that requiring new hires to have a high school diploma violates federal law. “The deplorable performance and almost total lack of standards exhibited by the nation’s public schools cast a pall of considerable doubt over the equity and utility of using high school graduation as a criteria for employing a person,” declared Daniel Blunt, spokesman for the EEOC. “Supposing a person has a diploma, what does this signify?” Blunt asked. “Standardized tests reveal that a remarkably large percentage of high school graduates are distressingly stupid. Even if graduates are less stupid...

The new "Hours of Service" Rules are a drop in the bucket. We think of the world of transportation -- especially trucking and automobile manufacturing -- as being one of the most fundamental of Democratic Party constituencies. Detroit has long been a party stronghold, with the UAW and Teamsters among Democrats' most powerful union supporters. From the worker at the DMV to the driver he licenses, this is one solid chain of Democrats. But is this political loyalty deserved today, if indeed it ever was? Since the Democratic Party was taken over by environmental extremists a generation ago, there has...

Twenty years ago, Gingrich’s appreciation of technology was more novel among Republicans, showing that there was a conservative libertarian interest in preserving the burgeoning Internet from efforts to regulate it. At the time, Gingrich talked up the transformative power of the Internet and a world where schools and hospitals would be wired. In 1996, Gingrich — then the speaker of the House — resisted an attempt to fight porn on the Internet. When the Senate began to push for the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Gingrich put up a roadblock that helped undermine the act, which was later struck down...

Expert warns: EPA regulation could lead to blackouts in ’12By JOSELYN KING - For The Times Leader December 27, 2011 WHEELING - The leader of a think tank on energy policy sees electrical blackouts in America's future if the Environmental Protection Agency continues plans to phase out coal-fired electric plants. Thomas Borelli, director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research, also believes there could be backlash in the 2012 elections if voters find themselves without electricity in the coming months. New EPA rules were issued last week and will allow companies three years to...

Per a recent Chamber of Commerce survey, 89 percent of respondents believe Washington charts the wrong economic course; blaming stagnation largely on taxes and regulatory burdens. America has seemingly forgotten the wellsprings for her vast wealth. Historically, Americans generally enjoyed a stable dollar, relatively low taxes, sacrosanct contracts and respect for property. Free from government interference and confident our rights would be upheld, the pursuit of profit propelled Americans to unprecedented living standards. Affluence comes by aligning talent to capital without having to appease those in authority. In pursuing self-interest, we garner profit through efficiently satisfying customers in manners which...

PHOENIX — A cancer survivor and former hospice nurse’s assistant is suing the Arizona Board of Cosmetology over rules she says unconstitutionally deny her the right to earn an honest living – while at the same time needlessly denying services to homebound, elderly and bedridden individuals across the state. Lauren Boice opened Angels on Earth Home Beauty, which connects the elderly, sick, and terminally ill with licensed cosmetologists. Homebound individuals desiring a haircut, manicure, or massage call Lauren, who matches them with a cosmetologist who will visit the client’s home or assisted living center. But while Lauren’s clients see her...

President Barack Obama launched his reelection campaign with a firm slap at efficiency as the cause of the nation’s economic doldrums. “While the pursuit of efficiency may serve selfish interests it is a body blow to the nation’s collective well-being,” the President asserted. “Saving time or money may help the individual, but it hurts the opportunity of others who need to make a living.” “Automated systems that save a person time also eliminate job opportunities for others,” Obama pointed out. “If you go online to book a trip you are costing a travel agent a job. If you use e-mail...

California ranks 46th in business friendliness as measured by 44 different tax and public policy issues, according to a new study from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, a Virginia-based advocacy group. Still, California ranks at or near the bottom in such categories as personal income tax, personal capital gains tax, gasoline and diesel taxes, per capita state and local government expenditures, per capital state and local government debt and highway cost effectiveness.

Imagine walking into your local wine, liquor or beer shop and finding all of your favorite brands on sale — permanently. This could be the reality for Washington liquor consumers as the state transitions from a government-run distribution system to a private one as a result of the state’s successful privatization initiative, which voters approved this month. The new system permits liquor producers to sell directly to retailers; something that is generally prohibited under the three-tier distribution system which separates producers from retailers by forcing them to sell their product to a wholesaler who then sells to stores. Freeing the...

A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away. It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

We Need Jobs, Depending on the Color The White House rhetoric has been consistent in regards to giving lip service to its relentless focus on creating jobs, especially those of a certain color. Do jobs have a color? They do if you are a government official, in particular an empathetic, self ordained, omniscient and paternalistic liberal, endlessly fighting for the working class. Remember, the conservatives fight for the rich, and the rich don’t even work! They just “have a lot of money”. Even the Republicans believe in colored jobs, so far as they have regurgitated the liberal lingo in their...

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (WHBL) - Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco is blasting state legislators who voted on Monday to eliminate minimal training requirements to obtain a concealed carry permit. DeCecco said what began as a very reasonable attempt to assure Wisconsin citizens’ Second Amendment rights has turned into a radical and rabid NRA agenda. He said the legislators are apparently quite willing to ignore even minimal reasonable training safety requirements to ensure the safety of citizens who choose not to go armed as well as those who do. DeCecco said the NRA apparently has some legislators in their pocket so...

CAMDENTON, Mo. (AP) -- Nearly every year, Patsy Riley has gotten unsolicited offers for her house on Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks with its spectacular views of tree-lined bluffs and its ample shoreline, but she never wanted to leave. Now, she and hundreds of her neighbors wonder what will become of their homes after a federal agency declared that many structures built close to the lake may have to go. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, citing restrictions on private developments around dams, says thousands of residences, decks, patios and boathouses appear to encroach on land belonging to the hydroelectric project...

According to the Feral government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (where were you then ?) ** 1979 ** was the peak of U.S. manufacturing jobs, at 19.426 million. Looking at year-over-year changes from 1961 to 2010, a pattern emerges. During the 1960's when unions were at the peak of their power and started to really firm up the support they were given by U.S. regulation and government, every year saw more U.S. manufacturing jobs. But alas, when unions really got in bed with the government, that actually wound up sealing their fate. During the time span covering the Nixon and Ford...

SALT LAKE CITY — Motorists who leave their vehicles idling for more than two minutes in Utah's capital city run the risk of being fined. The Salt Lake City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance making idling of vehicle engines a crime punishable by a fine of between $50 and $210, depending on the number of offenses and how quickly fines are paid. The goal, city leaders said, is to improve air quality in the Salt Lake Valley, where more than 50 percent of air pollution comes from vehicle exhaust. "Anything we can do to reduce pollution on...

Equality: The Girl Scouts of Colorado says it's working to support transgender children, their families and the volunteers who serve them I had no idea! Silly me...when I grew up I thought there were distinctions between boys and girls; but this isn't that. It's about "inclusiveness" for fear of being stigmatized with the dirty-word labels, sexist/bigoted/racist/xenophobic/homophobic: The Girl Scouts of Colorado has flip-flopped on a decision not to let a 7-year-old boy join their organization, now saying he is welcome even though he’s not a girl. Bobby Montoya plays with Barbie dolls and My Little Ponies. He’s a boy, but...

To All My Valued Employees: There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your j What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests. First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against...

California has sued in Orange County Superior Court three companies for claiming that their water is sold in plastic bottles that are biodegradable. It is the first action that Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office has taken to enforce the state’s 2008 law that bans the use of the words “biodegradable,”, “degradable” or “compostable” in labeling plastic food or beverage containers.

House members of the Energy and Commerce Committee bickered about the definition of dust in a hearing about a Republican bill to stop overreaching Environmental Protection Agency​ (EPA) regulations. Democrats at the hearing on the Farm Dust Regulation Act of 2011, sponsored by Rep. Kristi Noem (R.-S.D.), fired a number of vicious shots at the the bill, calling it merely a red herring. They claimed that the EPA doesn’t regulate dust at all, and that the wording of the bill was intended to strip the EPA’s power to regulate other destructive particulates, such as soot from urban factories.

Economists tend to speak in unemotional, non-judgmental terms. People and companies respond to incentives, or seek profits and efficiency. Economists tend to identify problems as issues having to do with the allocation or resources. But in his new book, The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity, economist Jeffrey Sachs discusses the plight of the U.S. economy in highly moral terms.

Minnesota ranks as the fifth least affordable state for prekindergarten child care, after New York, Montana, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Minnesota is among the most expensive for child care partly because the industry is highly regulated by the state, according to Ann McCully, executive director of Minnesota Child Care. For example, Minnesota requires a lower ratio of staff to children than other states, which requires centers to spend more money on personnel. McCully said it can be difficult for centers to make a profit or simply break even.

As their efforts to get the super-regulatory agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) off the ground are stifled by Senate Republicans, Democrats are continuing to seek new avenues to pressure the Republican Leadership to capitulate. The latest scheme is a hearing on “Consumer Protection and the Middle Class Wealth Building in an age of Growing Household Debt” whose purpose is the highlight the “need” for more regulation on the economy governed by the CFPB. The hearing will feature a variety of guests who will predictably call for more regulations that the unaccountable CFPB could provide. But perhaps...

Hold on to your wallet: The Durbin Amendment goes into effect Saturday. The once-obscure amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill limits “interchange fees,” which banks charge to merchants for providing the service that allows stores to accept debit-card payments. The fees were cut by some 80 percent, which makes it less profitable for banks to offer debit-card services. So the banks have done the natural thing and begun to transfer the fee from merchants to their customers, with Bank of America announcing a new $5-per-month fee for debit-card users. Naturally, the amendment’s author, Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) is in...

During a campaign stop in Memphis this week, Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry adeptly played to the rhetoric of unrest reverberating around Tennessee and beyond as a result of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s raid on Gibson Guitars. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, himself a critic of the Gibson raid and one of Tennessee’s highest profile Perry supporters, introduced the Texas governor during a lunchtime fundraiser at the Memphis Botanical Gardens. Before striding to the mic, Perry took a quick detour over to the guitar player in the corner of the room. “Let me come over here and make sure...

Rep. Don Young to Repeal Every Regulation Enacted Since 1991 Written by Brian Koenig Friday, 30 September 2011 11:38 Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska, left) plans to introduce a controversial bill that would abolish every federal regulation enacted in the past two decades, including restrictions on banking, oil drilling, healthcare, and food and drug safety. "My bill is very simple, I just null and void any regulations passed in the last 20 years," Young announced to a crowd at the Anchorage Downtown Rotary Club. "I picked 20 years ago because it crossed party lines and also we were prosperous at that...

Rep. Issa: Regulatory Tsunami Impeding Economic Growth Rep. Darrell Issa (CA-49) San Diego Union Tribune, Sep 30 - One of the greatest myths in American politics is that one person can create jobs. Sure, when the economy is strong, the person whose watch it is gets the credit. When the economy is struggling, they get the blame. But let’s be clear and honest, it’s not President Barack Obama who creates jobs. It’s not Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the Senate. It’s not John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House. Job creation stems from the innovators and entrepreneurs in our...

On Sat., Oct. 1, new regulations from the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul go into effect on debit cards. Specifically, they impose price controls on “interchange fees,” the fees that banks and credit unions charge to retailers on debit card transactions. The average interchange fee is about 44 cents. The new rules limit the fees to 21 to 24 cents. “The costs of processing debit card transactions doesn’t go away because you limit the price,” said John Berlau, director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. “That shifts the costs to consumers.”

Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, testified before the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight, and Government Spending on September 13. He was there to speak on the subject of job creation, but Schiff also knows a few things about how the government can destroy jobs. In his remarks before the subcommittee, which he also published in full at Forbes, he explained how he was fined for hiring too many people: Regulations have substantially increased the costs and risks associated with job creation. Employers are subjected to all sorts of onerous regulations, taxes, and legal liability. The...

The data process used to arrive at the administration’s determination that greenhouse gases endanger “the public health and welfare� violated the Environmental Protection Agency’s own peer review procedure, a new report from the EPA Office of the Inspector General reveals.Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, requested this report in April, asking that the OIG determine whether the EPA “followed key federal and Agency regulations and policies in developing and reviewing the technical data used to make and support its greenhouse gases endangerment finding.� Now, Inhofe is calling for a series of...

In a news release last week, the Environmental Protection Agency labeled hay a pollutant, according to the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA). A non-profit organization representing thousands of U.S. cattle producers, R-CALF USA says the EPA’s outlandish affidavit could potentially require farmers and ranchers to store hay in pollution containment zones.

Foolish laws are hampering America's lifeblood industry, and making drivers more tired to boot. As President Barack Obama is touring the country touting his so-called jobs bill, he’s not talking about one of the largest job killers facing American industry — regulation. PJMedia is working with AmericanJobCreators to bring you stories of how over-regulation is destroying jobs nationwide. One of the most regulated industries in the United States is over-the-road trucking. Nearly anything you have in your house, from light bulbs, to toilet paper, to your flat-screen television, was delivered to where you bought it by truck – indeed, 70...

Industry criticism is growing against the Obama administration's proposed revisions to EPA's Bush-era definition of solid waste (DSW) as chemical manufacturing and scrap recycling industries becoming the latest to complain that the revised rule would be too costly. The Obama EPA proposed July 6 to amend the Bush-era DSW rule, which relaxed certain waste management requirements on industry in the interest of promoting recycling. The new proposal, which follows a lawsuit from environmentalists and complaints from state regulators that the Bush-era rule is too lax, would tighten many of the requirements. Industry groups, including the National Mining Association (NMA) and...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat—and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.”

A small songbird that makes its home in sage scrub habitat on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and elsewhere on the Southern California coast should no longer be protected by federal law, a new lawsuit argues. The California gnatcatcher, which was named a threatened subspecies by the federal government in 1993, is the subject of litigation from the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento law group that successfully sued several years ago to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the bald eagle.

State and regional water officials poured criticism on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday, calling the EPA's proposed pollution standards heavy-handed, overly expensive and indefensibly "poor science." Appearing at a congressional hearing conducted by U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, a cavalcade of water experts disputed the EPA's tactics and questioned its motives. Paul Steinbrecher, president of the Florida Water Environment Association Utility Council, said the EPA's numeric nutrient criteria are "rooted in poor science." "It was done to settle a lawsuit, not to meet an environmental need. Setting criteria for the entire state in an unrealistic time frame, they found...