In its ceaseless quest to protect us from ourselves, Congress in 2009 compelled credit card companies to confirm an applicant’s “ability to pay” before approving an account. Lawmakers evidently believe that Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and the like somehow lack incentive to manage their own credit risk. (As opposed to, say, the elected officials who have racked up $1.2 trillion in national debt this year.) In any event, the Federal Reserve Board subsequently issued the specific regulations called for in the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (CARD). While the … More
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Numerous Heritage research papers and postings on The Foundry in the past year have reported on the plight of Gibson Guitar, which has been accused by the Obama Administration of running afoul of the Lacey Act—one of the oldest U.S. environmental regulations. Gibson’s violations were deemed so severe that armed federal marshals entered its facilities in Nashville and Memphis in August 2011 and seized millions of dollars’ worth of guitars, which the government alleges may have been constructed of wood illegally harvested in Madagascar and India. As the months have … More
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A funny thing happened on the way to the recall. Government unions organized Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s (R) recall in retaliation for limiting their collective bargaining powers. But the Democratic candidate, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, barely mentions the collective bargaining law on the campaign trail. That is probably because—now that they have seen its benefits—most Wisconsin voters want to keep it. By a 53 percent to 38 percent margin, independent voters favor the limits on collective bargaining in government. It turns out that closing a $3.6 billion deficit without raising … More
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Yesterday was tax day, serving as a special reminder of how big the federal government has become. As Heritage has warned before, Obamacare is on track to makes things a lot worse. The President’s health law will be partially paid for by tax increases and the creation of new taxes. When Obamacare first passed, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that its tax hikes would total $502 billion over the next 10 years. But most of the new, higher taxes don’t kick in until later in the decade, which means … More
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The Dodd–Frank financial strangulation statute transferred a portion of the duties once performed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That’s left the FTC to tap its $292 million budget and 1,176 full-time employees for devising stricter regulation of…appliance labels. Specifically, the agency intends to prohibit manufacturers from hanging the ubiquitous yellow EnergyGuide labels from clothes washers, dishwashers, and refrigerators. (The current rule defines a “hang tag” as a label ‘‘affixed to the product…using string or similar material.’’) Instead, adhesive labels would be de … More
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While the Supreme Court deliberates whether the Affordable Care Act should stand, the Obama Administration is busy at work ensuring that the President’s health care law is implemented. The Hill reports that the White House has allocated half a billion dollars to the IRS to put Obamacare in place: The Obama administration is quietly diverting roughly $500 million to the IRS to help implement the president’s healthcare law. The money is only part of the IRS’s total implementation spending, and it is being provided outside the normal appropriations process. The … More
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The highest elected official in the United States dished out an extra helping of irony yesterday when, in speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Barack Obama slammed the Supreme Court as an “unelected group of people” who will have turned to “judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint” if they strike down Obamacare. The President’s remarks imply that the Court, were it to rule the individual mandate unconstitutional, would be acting recklessly in undertaking judicial review of … More
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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 … More
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Not only have federal policies and inefficient permitting slowed oil and gas production, but government hurdles are also having a harmful effect on the mining industry. Speaking earlier this week at Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing, Carol Raulston of the National Mining Association said the barriers to entry today are so burdensome that the United States imports $5.1 billion worth of minerals that we could be producing domestically. “It is a very long process. Investors worldwide that provide the capital for these kinds of endeavors rank the United States as dead last … More
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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 … More
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