America is a nation of laws. But lately it seems that we might be legislating ourselves to death.
There's been a lot of talk lately about government regulation. How much is too much? Where's the line between promoting health, safety and responsibility and stifling economic recovery with regulations that are impossible to satisfy?
It's not an easy question. Different people have different ideas about regulations based on their own experiences. One Cheney resident might have a beef with the city government over the permitting of a new deck on his house. Are hurricane clips really necessary here in Eastern Washington? Yet his neighbor may have pushed for stricter codes for deck construction after several of his family members were injured when his deck separated from his lake house last summer. It's all a matter of perspective.
For Republicans in Congress, the government is over-regulating many industries, and it's paralyzing development and job growth that the country sorely needs.
During her recent visit with the Cheney Free Press editorial board, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers talked a fair bit about regulation. She said new regulations—including EPA limits on heavy-duty truck emissions and dust particulates in the air—were difficult to reach for the industries they affected. Trucker jobs went unfilled because drivers feared the cost of a new fuel-efficient vehicle. Farmers delayed expanding their plantings for fear that the dust particulates they stirred up in the field would get them in trouble.
McMorris Rodgers said new regulations often get delayed as decision-makers sort out the details, but folks who would be effected tend to “hunker down,” waiting to move forward until they see how it shakes out. She told us that Republicans in the House are hoping to push back against excessive regulations this fall in hopes of moving toward a more “common sense” approach to government's role in people's lives.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor echoed his colleague's comments in a recent column in The Washington Post. He wrote that the party's legislative agenda included repealing some rules and preventing several others from going through, a move he said will boost economic growth by relieving burdens of regulation and taxes on individuals and businesses.
We agree with the Republicans that certain regulations are excessive and do indeed inhibit the economy from recovering quickly. We support the idea of a common sense approach to regulation. But we're also aware of the good regulations do for people, the environment and, yes, in some cases even the economy.
So when Cantor says the EPA's “Transport Rule” could eliminate thousands of jobs, we also have to consider that the rule aims to reduce pollution. We're not sure where he got his numbers, but if they're accurate, it's still a gray area. It all depends on how much weight you give to the harm—eliminating jobs versus letting states pollute each other—and the good—maintaining jobs versus reducing pollution crossing state lines.
There are many details and many approaches to consider when it comes to government regulation. Though we don't put much stock lately in Congress' ability to think logically and work for the good of the people, we urge our representatives to legislate thoughtfully, to weigh each regulation's potential impact on real people over the whispers of lobbyists and to vote accordingly. The question is not whether or not to regulate, but rather how to regulate in a smart way that benefits the country.
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