Some 120 regulations taking effect in the past year require enhanced accommodations for disabled individuals at 65 different types of public and private facilities—encompassing 7 million privately owned sites and 80,000 units of state and local government—including stadiums; convention centers; auditoriums; airport terminals; public parking facilities; theaters and concert halls; jails; prisons; bowling alleys; fishing piers; amusement parks; hotels, motels, and spas; restaurants; stores; health care clinics; and office buildings (to name a few). All of which will cost more than $1 billion annually for each of the next 15 …
President Obama famously declared in this year’s State of the Union: “I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.” Heritage’s James Gattuso and Diane Katz have run the numbers. And Obama shouldn’t be bragging. Obama’s comparison encompassed all regulations, including federal rules for such things as Medicare rates, migratory birds and fireworks safety. And on that point, he was telling the truth. This week’s chart tests Obama’s claim by looking at the number of major regulations imposed by each administration. Major …
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) just announced that the country’s current account deficit for 2011 was $473.4 billion. This number includes transactions like exports and imports. Cue the “sky is falling” headlines. However, the BEA did not point out that the overall U.S. international transactions deficit was $0. That means the number of dollars leaving the country and the number of dollars entering the country in 2011 balance out. Clearly explaining this information might reduce the number of inaccurate reports on the trade deficit’s impact, such the Associated …
The Heritage Foundation recently released a paper titled Red Tape Rising: Obama-Era Regulation at the Three-Year Mark. The paper talks about the regulations that the Obama Administration has put in place that not only effect businesses, but also every citizen. Click here to join us right now for our “Lunch with Heritage” chat. We are joined by Diane Katz, the co-author of the paper, who is taking your questions about the paper, the new regulations, and how the excessive regulatory state affects you. Lunch with Heritage feat. Diane Katz Click …
We’ve corrected Paul Krugman in the past, when he mistakenly invoked imaginary British spending cuts as proof that undercutting Keynesian hydraulics will demolish an already limp economic recovery. This time he points to Greek austerity – or “spending cuts” – as he characterizes it. “Not a day goes by without some politician or pundit intoning, with the air of a man conveying great wisdom, that we must slash government spending right away or find ourselves turning into Greece, Greece I tell you,” he proudly advances. “What Greek experience actually shows …
Defense officials need to rethink the way they award contracts, says Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute. Goure argues that, in its effort to promote competition, the Pentagon has actually convoluted its system and potentially weakened the defense industrial base. Frequent changes to regulations make it difficult for companies to take advantage of economies of scale, as they must continually adapt to new requirements. Instead of adding layers of bureaucracy to its buying practices, the Pentagon should promote a robust defense strategy in the larger context. The duty …
The U.S., EU, and Japan are suing China in the World Trade Organization (WTO), calling Chinese export quotas on rare earth elements an illegal trade practice. The U.S. will most likely win. But the suit is peripheral to real issues and was brought because the U.S. is unable or unwilling to address the true problems in Sino–American economic relations. Of the many questionable practices in Chinese trade policy, the rare earths quota is a strange one to pick on. Last year, the quota was barely half-filled; higher prices and expanding …
If you fly across the country, it’s easy to see signs of America’s ingenuity and productivity — skyscrapers in New York City, steel mills in Pennsylvania, factories in Chicago, farmland in the Great Plains, and the glittering technology of Silicon Valley. But what you can’t see, though it’s very real, is the invisible web of red tape crawling forth from Washington, crisscrossing the landscape, strangling job creators, tying down entrepreneurs, and tangling America’s engine of innovation in a mess of regulations. Under the Obama Administration, those endless miles of government-imposed …
In the Super Tuesday primary, the economy was the number one issue on voters’ minds, be they in Massachusetts, Georgia, Ohio, or Virginia. And that wasn’t because they were happy about high unemployment and slow wage growth. Yet according to President Barack Obama, “the economy is getting stronger, and the recovery is speeding up.” Of course, these things are relative. A disappointing recovery is underway. It just hasn’t touched the millions of Americans who remain out of work, the millions more whose wages can’t keep up with inflation, and it …
Ezra Klein, Mark Thoma, and Paul Krugman take issue with David Brooks for suggesting that the failure in recent years to keep budget deficits under control represents a moral issue. “Every generation has an incentive to spend on itself,” Brooks writes, “but none ran up huge deficits until the current one. Some sort of moral norms prevented them.” Krugman and company are having none of it. In their view, busting deficits are just the natural result of a recession, not a matter of American virtue or character. “Current deficits reflect …
