Small Business, REINS, and Energy Efficiency

Small Business

Politicians claim to want to help small businesses; but are they actually helping?

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young says regulations are killing small businesses.

“Given how much taxpayer money politicians lavish on small businesses, most of elected officials are confident that they are helping, not hurting. They should listen more closely to the consituency they claim to love so much. The Bush-Obama era has been one of ever-increasing spending and regulation. And those hurt small businesses. Paychex, Inc., a payroll service provider that works with many small businesses, recently commissioned a survey. They asked small business owners their thoughts on the economy, and what the biggest obstacles are to growing their businesses. The most common gripe? Regulation. 47 percent of small business owners say that regulations have ‘slowed or prevented’ their business from growing.”

REINS

Today, the House will hold a second hearing on the REINS Act, which proposes to institute congressional review for federal agencies’ major rules.

Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis talks about how passing the REINS Act could curb the EPA’s power.

“It’s time to un-stack the decks. Administrative agencies should not be able to make the big policy decisions that ‘We, the People’ elect Congress and the President to make. Under the REINS Act, EPA would have to pursue its Kyoto-inspired agenda the old fashioned, small ‘r,’ republican way: through public discourse and persuasion, not regulatory fiat.”

Energy Efficiency

New models of top-loader washing machines are less effective than old models, thanks to several energy efficiency mandates.

General Counsel Sam Kazman is quoted in The New York Times.

“Efficiency mandates have become feel-good mantras that politicians invoke. The results of these mandates have ranged from costly fiascos, such as once-dependable top-loading washers that no longer wash, to higher fatalities in cars downsized by fuel-efficiency rules. If the technologies were so good, they wouldn’t need to be imposed on us by law.”