Category Archives: regulation

Brownies around the Web

Posted on May 25, 2010 | Comments Off on Brownies around the Web

My colleague Lee Doren made a short video on the Pentagon’s 26-page brownie recipe. Have a look:

NPR’s All Things Considered also ran a segment on the recipe over the weekend. They had a local chef prepare brownies according to the directions, and dug up a streamlined version of the recipe that is — wait for it — 31 pages long. Have a listen here.

The humor site Fark picked up on Reason‘s write-up.

So did food sites like Chow and Slashfood.

The Chicago Tribune has a blurb on it, St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an editorial, and the tabloid Weekly World News has its own article. The Huffington Post covered the story, along with their friends across the aisle at National Review.

CBS News picked up on it, along with Canada’s The Globe and Mail.

Lots of bloggers are having at it as well, including Instapundit.

Good to see so many people from across the political spectrum coming together for a good laugh!

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How Much Would a Congressional Pay Cut Save?

Posted on May 18, 2010 | Comments Off on How Much Would a Congressional Pay Cut Save?

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is proposing a 5 percent pay cut for members of Congress.

“In the face of our ever-deepening federal debt, the federal government must follow their example by finding common-sense solutions to do more with less,” she told The Hill.

A noble sentiment. And one that would save $8700 per member. With 535 members of the House and Senate, the total savings are $4.65 million.

The federal government is on track to spend about $3.8 trillion this year. Trimming $4.65 million means that for every $816,502 the federal government spends, it would save one dollar.

Rep. Kirkpatrick is proposing a 0.00122 percent spending cut. That’s not even a rounding error.

I do not intend to mock Rep. Kirkpatrick. Her spending cut is better than nothing, and I am glad she is proposing it. But placed in proper context, it is very, very small. It is a largely symbolic proposal, and should be treated as such. A 5 percent pay cut for Congress is no austerity measure.

More fundamental solutions would involve fundamental entitlement reform paired with a deregulatory stimulus. Cato’s Chris Edwards has some other spending cut ideas that deserve a serious look. They total $380 billion, or ten percent of federal spending.

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Posted in Political Animals, regulation, Spending

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Federal Regulations and You: Partners in Democracy!

Posted on May 17, 2010 | Comments Off on Federal Regulations and You: Partners in Democracy!

This new video from Reason.tv is great.

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The Myth of Bush the Deregulator

Posted on May 17, 2010 | Comments Off on The Myth of Bush the Deregulator

Here’s a letter I sent recently to The New York Times:

May 14, 2010

Editor, The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

To the Editor:

Your May 12 article “With Obama, Regulations Are Back in Fashion” (page A15) asserts that the Bush administration had a “deregulatory agenda.” If that is true, then President Bush failed miserably in executing it.

His administration added 31,634 new regulations to the books, and repealed hardly any. The cost of complying with federal regulations exceeded $1 trillion for the first time on Bush’s watch. 587,321 new pages were added to Federal Register during the Bush years.*

Even the regulation-intensive Obama administration is passing new regulations at a pace nearly ten percent slower than President Bush.

Contrary to the article, the Bush administration was the best friend regulators have had in a generation or more.

Ryan Young
Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington, DC

*All data from Wayne Crews, Ten Thousand Commandments.

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Posted in Correspondence, Media, regulation

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Sometimes I Think They’re Just Messing with Us

Posted on May 16, 2010 | 1 comment

Here’s an excerpt from an early 1980s Office of Management and Budget report:

An agency subject to the provisions of the Federal Reports Act may enter into an arrangement with an organization not subject to the Act whereby the organization not subject to the Act collects information on behalf of the agency subject to the Act. The reverse also occurs.

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Posted in Political Animals, regulation

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Friday Regulation Roundup

Posted on May 7, 2010 | Comments Off on Friday Regulation Roundup

Some of the stranger governmental goings-on I’ve dug up recently:

-Since 1960, it has been illegal to fly a kite in Schaumburg, Illinois.

-If you are a tree in need of help, the federal government has a Tree Assistance Program.

–$18,881 of stimulus money spent on a single sign in Wyoming.

-Concerned about your fecundity? Consult the federal government’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee.

-Northern Arizona University spends $75,000 in stimulus funds to install electronic sensors to see if students skip class.  (hat tip to The Wall Street Journal‘s Kim Schatz)

-In Alabama, it is against the law to sell artificially colored potatoes.

-Need help with your math homework? Consult the government’s North American Numbering Council.

-In Yukon, Oklahoma, it is illegal for a patient to pull a dentist’s tooth.

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Let Your Voice Be Heard

Posted on May 7, 2010 | Comments Off on Let Your Voice Be Heard

Today’s Daily Caller features an article from me about CEI’s entry in the EPA’s YouTube video contest on regulations, expertly produced by my colleagues Drew Tidwell and Nicole Ciandella.

The theme of the video contest is “Let your voice be heard.” The problem is that over-regulation drowns out your voice in a cacophony of commands and controls from the minute you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night. The Code of Federal Regulations is 157,000 pages long. And it’s still growing. Enough is enough.

Hopefully CEI’s video isn’t the only entry that makes that important point.

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Posted in Publications, regulation

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The EPA’s Regulation Video Contest

Posted on May 6, 2010 | Comments Off on The EPA’s Regulation Video Contest

The EPA ($10,500,000,000 budget, 17,000+ employees) is holding a YouTube video contest where entrants make videos about how great regulations are, and why we need more of them. The winner gets $2,500 of taxpayers’ money.

CEI decided to enter the contest. Our view of regulation is less sanguine, as you can see below.

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Federal Register Hits 25,000 Pages

Posted on May 6, 2010 | Comments Off on Federal Register Hits 25,000 Pages

This morning, the 2010 Federal Register passed the 25,000 page mark with an “Issuance of Order for Implementation of Additional Security Measures and Fingerprinting for Unescorted Access to Florida Power and Light Company” from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

After 87 working days, the Federal Register stands at 25,098 pages. That’s an average of 288 pages every single day of proposed rules, final rules, notices, and other federal doings.

Assuming 250 working days in a year, the Register is on pace for 72,121 pages, a slight increase over 2009’s 69,676 pages.

Back in January, it was on pace for a mere 63,187 pages. The pace has been accelerating since.

Can President Obama top President Bush’s final Federal Register, which ran to 79,435 pages? We shall see what the coming months bring.

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Department of Redundancy Department

Posted on May 6, 2010 | Comments Off on Department of Redundancy Department

Fun fact: the federal government has both an International Trade Administration and an International Trade Commission.

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Posted in regulation, Trade

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