Free Republic

President Trump is at least changing one thing in Washington DC. He is rolling back the regulatory state that has grown and grown over the eight years of the Obama administration. And this is indeed making America great again. Make no mistake. The Trump administration has claimed that it shelved 860 federal regulations its first six months in office, slowing new rules and finally reducing the government’s role in the economy. A new report released Thursday morning detailed how the administration has reduced economically reductive regulations by half, dropping by 40 percent other rules that would have had a significant...

If you had to name a theme for Obama’s second term, it would be regulatory overreach. Despite the repeated rejection of the President’s most controversial proposals by lawmakers, Mr. Obama has turned to his “pen and his phone” (and the vast government bureaucracy he controls) to enact his extreme and often unpopular agenda. Examples of the kind of executive overreach that have come to define his presidency include unilateral changes to Obamacare, sweeping new rules issued by the FCC designed to impose centuries railroad-style regulations on the internet, and the far-reaching and expensive red tape he is seeking to impose...

Could the leaders in Washington please tell us which rules we are allowed to not follow? Please? This is getting confusing for the average American. Since 2005, the United States State Department has had very clear rules that employees cannot use personal email for official business. In 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent out an internal directive reminding State Department employees that they could not use personal email addresses for government business. Likewise, she removed a United States Ambassador for using personal email for government work. Now we are learning that prior to becoming Secretary of State in 2009,...

What kind of rules should govern our lives? I'd argue that the best rules are those that we'd be satisfied with if our very worst enemy were in charge of decision-making. The foundation for such rules was laid out by my mother. Let's look at it. My mother worked as a domestic servant. That meant that my younger sister and I often lunched at home by ourselves during our preteen years. Being bigger and stronger than my sister, I seldom divided the food evenly, especially the desserts. After a tiring day at work, Mom would be greeted by sob stories...

I'm probably too young to have so many pet peeves. The list seems to get longer every year. So, naturally, the longer I teach, the longer my list of class rules seems to get. In addition to rules of class conduct, I also have to develop rules concerning over-disclosure of information in emails and office visits. Such over-disclosure is always geared towards one goal for the student: transforming personal deficiencies into legitimate disabilities in an effort to attenuate workload expectations. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed by these excuses, I take time out in class to reiterate the rules concerning over-disclosure. Note...

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Tami Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the North Carolina Values Coalition. A Durham abortion facility became the third to close down either temporarily or permanently last week due to health violations. In the wake of the horror stories that came out of the Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia, states across the nation are taking action to protect women from the filthy conditions and dangerous practices occurring inside America’s abortion clinics. Like other states, North Carolina has been anxious to ensure it is not the sight of the next Gosnell – sloppy abortions on filthy...

If you see Kris Kristofferson around, please tell him thanks for writing the line "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" in his song "Me and Bobby McGee." That thought is sage and very appropriate for America in the year 2013. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law an astounding 876 new mandates. They all took effect last week. Now, in the Golden State, you cannot do the following: --Hunt a bear using trained dogs. Untrained canines are OK, I guess. And how would the authorities be able to tell? Would the dog have to...