President Obama is accustomed to having his way—like trying to dictate the date and time when Congress would assemble for him to address a special joint session.
But that’s small stuff. The big stuff is the dictatorial flood of regulations that Obama is imposing. He can’t get his big-government agenda through Congress anymore, so now he does it through the executive branch.
A regulation is a law made by the executive branch—permitted only because Congress over decades passed a multitude of vague laws that empowered bureaucrats.
Obama is taking advantage of this to govern by dictate. As his spokesman says, “There are things he can do without Congress, and he will do them.” Overturning Obama’s regulations requires both houses of Congress to unite by veto-proof margins to wipe out the red tape.
Because the Senate protects the Obama White House by bottling up House efforts to block the regulations, the White House-run bureaucracies are going wild. The only alternative is court challenges that take years to produce results, if they produce any.
By the Administration’s own count, 219 major regulations are impending—meaning 219 efforts that EACH are estimated to cost the economy more than $100 million per year. But President Obama—responding to a letter from House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH)—has personally identified what could be called the “Big Seven” because each of them would impose annual burdens over $1 billion. Collectively, these seven surpass $100 billion per year. So let’s call them the “Maleficent Seven.”
Obama defended the Seven in his letter to Boehner, claiming that his Administration just finished an exhaustive review of unnecessary regulations and weeded out old ones that were costing $2 billion per year (which Obama tried to magnify by saying it was “$10 billion over five years”). But his team has already issued 75 major new regulations last year and this year, which are an annual $40 billion drag on the economy. So he’s already made things 20 times worse than his “improvements”—and that’s even before the Maleficent Seven kick in.
What are the Seven? Here’s the official chart appended by the White House to Obama’s letter:
| Agency/Subagency | Title | Primary Annual Cost Estimate |
| EPA/AR | Reconsideration of the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards | $19-$90 Billion |
| EPA/AR | National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units | $10 Billion |
| EPA/AR | National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major Source Industrial, Commercial & Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters | $3 Billion |
| EPA/SWER | Standards for the Management of Coal Combustion Residuals Generated by Commercial Electric Power Producers | $0.6-$1.5 Billion |
| DOT/NHTSA | Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 111, Rearview Mirrors | $2 Billion |
| DOT/FMCSA | Electronic On-Board Recorders and Hours of Service Supporting Documents | $2 Billion |
| DOT/FMCSA | Hours of Service | $1 Billion |
Thousands of pages of other pending job-killing regulations are not even on the list, including those from Obamacare and the Dodd–Frank financial regulation.
The picture is clear. Businesses in America can’t afford to expand AND pay for the new regulations about to hit them. Hurricane Irene—and even Katrina—didn’t pack nearly the wallop that Hurricane Obama is bringing ashore. Companies already are evacuating the area of job creation.
Sadly, Congress failed to prepare for disasters of this magnitude, through decades of heedless delegation of authority to unelected bureaucrats. The House is considering helpful legislation, such as the REINS Act (by Representative Geoff Davis, R–KY), to rein in bureaucracy. But it can do more.
Until Congress fixes the entire regulatory system that enables a dictatorial executive branch, we’re at the mercy of more disasters in the form of job-killing regulations, especially from a President who doesn’t want to be bothered with congressional opposition. Meanwhile, Obama’s Maleficent Seven will continue to ride roughshod over our struggling economy.
"there are things the president can do without congress and he will." Boy, that sounds threatening! Like what that's productive to Americans as a whole and not interests of government bias? I thought executive order was for emergencies only? Is it really that loose that executive order can be used in abuse of the American Constitution so the President can get his way? Revealing his true identity? Even based only on special interest unproven to hold truth that will only cause detriment and burden on America as a whole? What is he doing for Americans that isn't putting intentional unnecessary sacrifice on most? why is he so proudly arrogant working against us Americans? Congress must stand to draw him the line? He is no more or less a man regardless of what the left of the democratic party publically insinuates. Our American livelihoods are at stake!!!
Obama must think no is subscribed to the Heritage Foundation thanks for bring this to light.
It becomes more clear each day that this administration is governing by edict and it must be stopped. We desperately need a law and order president who will undo these costly items by edict. This country needs a president who will obey the laws on the books and not diss the constitution – how did that line go…" A Republic, if you can keep it.." Sooner rather than later each of us must become involved on whatever level we can. Only if we challenge these things in print and by phoning our representatives does this country have a chance of surviving the next 5 years. We are on a downward spiral and this president is making it worse not better. Whether elected officials like it or not we Americans are a strange bunch. We love our country and we proudly fly our flags. We do not think it is good to try to neuter our beloved country for the sake of being "politically correct". We want a government who revels in this sentiment. We have been invaded by 50 million foreign nationals and this government says we will bestow all manner of rewards on them. Citizens will pay "a little more" to cover the cost of welfare, schooling, medical benefits and wages which are exempt
from those same taxes. Wars have been won with far fewer foot soldiers. By delegating their responsibilty to the executive they have in fact aided and abetted this president in the downward spiral of a once mighty nation, different from all others – and we want that country back.
Businesses will have to spend money to comply with these regulations, right? I heard that there is a lot of cash on business balance sheets these days. Who will receive the money businesses must spend to comply with these regulations? Won't that create jobs?
Are you really against removing toxins from the environment? Is it fair that large businesses can externalize some of their costs onto innocent citizens and unborn children in the form of toxins in the air and water?
I suspect the real motivation here is to protect the profits of these companies so that their executives prosperity can continue unabated.
I am not anti-capitalist. I am pro capitalist. Businesses should pay the full cost of producing their products. Externalizing costs such as pollution is not capitalism.
While it is true that a buisness should be environmentally consious of it's impact as it expands. the point of this article is far from that. The problem is the governent is going about this in a roundabout, spend as much as we possibly can kind of way. and this country can suppourt it. That and the EPA is bececoming harmful itself by forcing production to places that don't have their strict regulations.
Obama's plan to destroy this country is being very effectively accomplished through his orders to the EPA.