Free Republic

The White House on Monday essentially dared Republicans to try and stop President Obama’s climate-change agenda, with officials bragging that even after the GOP takes control of the Senate in January, there is nothing that can be done to stop a host of controversial new actions. On a conference call with reporters, White House counselor John Podesta said the administration will move ahead on the issue despite Republican efforts to stand in the way. He even called out incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by name, saying the Kentucky Republican will not succeed in trying to slow executive action on...

Looming Environmental Protection Agency ozone regulations personify the Obama administration’s secrecy, collusion, fraud, and disdain for concerns about the effects that its tsunami of regulations is having on the livelihoods, living standards, health and welfare of millions of American families. Virtually every EPA announcement of new regulations asserts that they will improve human health. Draconian carbon dioxide standards, for example, won’t just prevent climate change, even if rapidly developing countries continue emitting vast volumes of this plant-fertilizing gas. The rules will somehow reduce the spread of ticks and Lyme disease, and protect “our most vulnerable citizens.” It’s hogwash. But Americans...

Sen.-elect Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) pledged on “Fox News Sunday” to be “extremely aggressive” in trying to rollback some regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency. “Extremely aggressive,” she said when asked how aggressive she would be in the Senate in trying to rollback some of the EPA regulations. “That is my promise to West Virginia. We have lost over the last two years, 5,000 jobs. Those are just coal jobs. “We had several thousand other miners who are what are called a warn notice, meaning they're potentially going to be losing their jobs. That doesn't even count the transportation job,...

Hear the story of George Norris, a 67-year old hobbyist, was convicted and sent to prison for failure to comply with obscure laws involving his small business – selling orchids from his backyard. George Norris, a 67-year old hobbyist, developed a small business selling imported orchids out of his backyard greenhouse. Norris did his best to make sure he was in compliance with laws and regulations regarding his hobby. That’s why he was surprised to come home one day to find his house being raided by armed federal agents. After spending his life savings and borrowing what he could to...

~ RH Reality Check’s Andrea Grimes, itemizing the “undue burden” placed on pregnant mothers who have to travel further to get an abortion at a regulated abortion clinic in Texas, as opposed to a closer unregulated clinic. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of these regulations on October 2, effectively shuttering 13 unstandardized abortion clinics around the state.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an industry challenge to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations issued by Republican former President George W. Bush's administration that set standards for ozone pollution. By declining to hear the case, the court left in place the so-called primary air quality standards designed to protect public health, which Democratic President Barack Obama's administration defended. Those rules, which set air quality standards that U.S. states and the federal government must implement through regulations, had been challenged by the Utility Air Regulatory Group, which represents electricity-generating companies.

The U.S. Department of Education’s latest rule, the “gainful employment” or GE rule, mandates that for-profit colleges cannot saddle students with debt at an arbitrary rate. However, it affects only for-profit colleges such as Kaplan, DeVry and University of Phoenix, representatives of Kaplan claimed during a Washington, D.C. briefing recently. At the meeting organized by the Independent Women’s Forum, former Dallas mayor Thomas Leppert, now the CEO of Kaplan, explained how the rule itself is not fair to for-profit colleges. “A regulation should apply to any institution,” said Leppert, who noted “it only applies and targets the for-profit sector.” He...

The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country's wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas. Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation's 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone. Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don't get a permit could...

Contrary to what public administration profs tell you, everybody pays the cost of regulation and the unemployed may pay most heavily in lost jobs in exchange for rather murky benefits. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) released a report, “The Cost of Federal Regulation to the U.S. Economy, Manufacturing and Small Business,” slamming the Obama administration for burdensome regulations imposed by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal regulatory agencies In his foreword, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said that the average American company pays $9,991 per employee to comply with federal rules and regulations and the average...

There has been a lot of talk about regulations, more specifically about how the number of regulations have grown during the last several years. Sad to say, if you take a longer-term view and look again at the regulatory environment, you’ll find it has been what an investor would call a growth industry, with the number of restrictions in the Code of Federal Regulations growing 28% since 1997 – that’s nearly 2% per year. If page count is an indicator, then hang on to your collective hats — in 1975, the Code of Federal Regulations had 71,224 pages. By 2013,...

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organized a fast food protest, demanding that their prospective members all price themselves out of a job. So, understandably unable to resist a straight line while filling in as a talk show guest host, pundit Erick Erickson said that if you’re still earning minimum wage at 30, you’ve probably failed at life. It’s easy to blast Mr. Erickson for the tone-deafness of his comment. While certainly true of some, his quip is hardly true of most minimum wage employees. But is that fair? Is it reasonable, or helpful to the national economic and social...

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, released its annual index of economic freedom for the year 2013, using data from the year 2011. The results are not encouraging for Americans. US flag The U.S., which ranked third in economic freedom behind Hong Kong and Singapore from 1980 to 2000, has fallen to 17thout of the 152 countries the Fraser Institute surveyed. What are the contributing factors to this decline? The authors suggested that the U.S. legal system, protection of property rights, international trade freedom, and increasing regulations are stifling economic freedom in the U.S. Moreover, the U.S. has tied...

American employers hired at a surprisingly weak pace in August, even as the unemployment rate fell slightly, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists, along with politicians, have been hoping to see a significant rebound in the participation rate as unemployment drops and hiring picks up, but progress on this front has failed to materialize.

States will have more leeway to build highways and bridges without oversight from Uncle Sam under new rules from the Obama administration. […] Since the 1990s, the FHWA has required states to conduct a cost-benefit analysis known as value engineering on any highway improvement project that costs more than $25 million or any bridge project that costs more than $20 million. […] But the FHWA is loosening the requirements so that states do not have to go through the value engineering process unless they plan on spending more than $50 million for a highway project or more than $40 million...

I guess he really was multitasking out on the golf course. The President’s team has been hard at work behind the scenes, coming up with a strategy … well, maybe we should say plan, to address the nation’s many challenges. Spurred by President Obama’s climate action plan, the Department of Energy is pumping out new standards for refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners, ceiling fans, furnaces, boilers, water heaters, lamps and many more appliances.The administration says the standards will not only help the planet but also stimulate the economy by saving consumers money on their energy bills that they can spend...

I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot,” Abigail Borah, a youth delegate to the 2011 Durban climate negotiations, yelled from the conference floor. “I am scared for my future,” she cried, silencing Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s chief climate negotiator. “We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty.” Now the Obama administration is signaling that there will be not be a new climate treaty. According to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times, the path to a treaty has come to an end, 14 months before the...

Congress should use the appropriations process to reassert its authority over the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a Heritage Foundation issue brief released Tuesday.The report, written by scholar Daren Bakst, identifies three issues on which the EPA has proposed rules and regulations that exceed its authority. In all three cases, Bakst recommends that Congress prohibit the agency from using its funding to implement the proposals. (RELATED: EPA Overrides Congress, Hands Over Town to Indian Tribes)According to the report, “the EPA is using the regulatory process to require greenhouse gas emission reductions even as Congress has been unwilling to take such...

Have you ever given a friend, co-worker or babysitter a ride in your car? You could be a criminal. Car service apps such as Uber and Lyft allow a user to request a car, pay the driver and provide feedback about the ride — all using one’s smartphone. Drivers for these car services commonly use their own vehicles and users can specify their preferred vehicle type. Ride-sharing apps have exploded in popularity in recent years. Uber, for example, now operates in 70 cities since its 2009 launch. Whether it’s the novelty of hailing a ride via smartphone, or the responsive...

The agency's needless new ozone standard could cost Americans $270 billion annually. In a town famous for inaction, Washington is gearing up to take action on a major policy issue. But there's a hitch: The outcome could be the most expensive regulation in the nation's history, possibly tanking the economy and costing jobs at a time when businesses, manufacturers and families are making a comeback. Later this year, the Environmental Protection Agency will decide whether it should tighten the air-quality standard for ground-level ozone. There are several things about this possible new standard that are alarming. No single regulation has...

Conspiracies to stifle competition never work very well or for long in the absence of government power. Besides, such conspiracies are illegal under the federal antitrust laws. Therefore, special interest groups desiring to minimize or eliminate competition usually look for ways of using government regulation for their purposes. It is not only far more effective, but also largely immune for antitrust attack. A case the Supreme Court will hear in October, North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC perfectly illustrates the way this nasty little game is played. Among the many cosmetic services Americans enjoy is teeth whitening....