[from occupied ga]

This sort of thing is just one example of how the federal government (and it's accomplices in state and local governments) have converted what was once a free country into a police state.

Not that I expect any of the bushbots who pollute FR with things like "a day in the life of King George II" (gush gush) to understand this, or even disapprove of it if they do understand it, but hopefully not everyone feels that the election of a Republican liberal statist was the answer to the evils caused by the previous Democrat liberal statist.

[Cold Heat]

Believe it or not, there is a great deal of concern for this issue in the Bush admin.

It is difficult to say publically because dems are running attack ads like the one against Hutchinson accusing him of voting for tax breaks to be given to Enron. They are unsurpassed when it comes to public manipulation. They are equal with the Islamacist's and Hitler.

[Cold Heat]

Small Business Focus: The Devil's in the Details
Release Date: 09/06/2002

by Jack Faris

Legendary New York Yankees manager Joe McCarthy joked that he once dreamed of dying, and on arrival in heaven, was asked to assemble a baseball team. Naturally, he called up such greats as Cy Young and Babe Ruth. They were unbeatable.

Then, the day came when his heavenly stars were called to face the Devil's team. McCarthy, knowing his players were the best, told the Devil he didn't have a prayer of winning.

"You're right," said the Devil, "but I've got all the umpires."

Here on Earth, the superstars of small business slug away daily on Main Street. They're great players, tirelessly hitting home runs for the nation's economy.

They have few rivals. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, small firms dominate several sectors of the American economy. For example, 99.9 percent of all construction firms are small, as are 99.6 percent of enterprises in professional, scientific and technical services. Add 99.3 percent of health care and social assistance firms for good measure.

They're the best players. But their strongest opponent, the federal government, has all the umpires. While the small-business sector generates nearly three-fourths of net new jobs, complying with regulations costs them 60 percent more than their big-business counterparts. Their cost just to meet federal rules is nearly $7,000 per employee.

It's no surprise then that most small-business owners are tired of being hassled by the regulator-umpires. NFIB research found that the federal government was considered the primary culprit by virtually half of those surveyed. Forty-four percent called regulation a serious problem.

But just a few days ago, something happened that should help level the playing field. President Bush stepped into the game, called time-out, and told the umpires to play fair. Officially issuing Executive Order 13272, the president demanded that federal agencies, when writing new rules and regulations, implement policies that protect America's small businesses.

Although the Regulatory Flexibility Act has been in the rulebooks for 25 years, federal umps have ignored its requirement to consider the impact on small firms before they regulate.

They often "don't care that the law is on the books," the president said when he unveiled his small-business plan earlier this year. That plan includes an initiative to "tear down the regulatory barriers to job creation for small businesses and give small-business owners a voice in the complex and confusing federal regulatory process."

The feds may have all the umpires, but the man who controls the rulebook clearly intends to challenge any bad calls. The Executive Order sets regulation-writing policies and directs SBA's Office of Advocacy to train agencies to measure the regulatory damage on small firms, and review proposed rules before they're published. What's more, the bureaucrat-umpires will now have to report annually on their compliance.

Small-business owners are encouraged by this effort, but they'll keep a wary eye on the federal umpires. They've learned that when dealing with the government, the Devil is always in the details.

[PGalt]

Anderson sets up your typical strawman arguments with car analogies to buttress his thinking, and then he delivers the bomb...

Second, the expansion of criminal law becomes a tool of tyranny. When more and more activities are criminalized, in the end it means more ruined businesses, destroyed families, and increased financial burdens upon taxpayers, as they must pay for the expanding prison population. The United States already incarcerates more people than any other nation on the face of the earth (approximately two million, one-fourth of all the world’s prisoners), and the majority of them are in jail for non-violent offenses

Liberal, anti-freedom, criminal-enabling talking points...disgusting.

[palmer]

Why is the government in the fraud protection racket at all any more? I realize there is a long history of government doing this, but with information age ideas like EBay (sellers rate buyers, buyers rate sellers, fraudulent ratings generally get cancelled out), there should be no need for government enforcement after the fact.

[tacticalogic]

Over the last several decades, Congress has slowly but surely given over its lawmaking powers to judges and bureaucrats.

Gotta love the New Deal.