Free Republic

Regulations: Donald Trump will have a busy first day if he plans to undo much of the damage inflicted on the economy by President Obama. Nevertheless, here's one more item to add to his list: Overturn $1.7 billion in Dodd-Frank rules. The Dodd-Frank financial "reform," passed by Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in 2010, is arguably the most misguided and economically harmful piece of legislation ever imposed on the country (the second, arguably, is ObamaCare). As we've noted in this space before, one of the main reasons the economy has been stuck in neutral for the past...

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled that existing emissions limits for passenger cars for 2022 through 2025 should remain in place. It's a decision that is already opposed by lobbyists representing the auto industry, and possibly by the incoming Trump Administration. Sure enough, one automaker says it has already begun talks with President-elect Donald Trump that include a request for lower emissions targets.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced new workplace regulations requiring employers to accommodate the languages spoken by prospective hires and current employees or “face sanctions including fines and/or revocation of permission to operate.” Oddly, the EEOC cited “the growing diversity of the nation’s workforce as the justification for the new rule.” Under the new regulations requiring employees to speak or understand English is now deemed unlawful discrimination. “Employees have the right to communicate in a language of their own choosing,” EEOC Chairperson Jenny Yang argued. “It is the employer’s responsibility to learn the language of his employees or hire...

The new implementation of EPA rules on heavy trucks has boosted the 10-year regulatory burden on America past $1 trillion, 75 percent of which have been imposed by the Obama administration. That amounts to a one-time charge of $3,080 per person, or an annual cost of $540 ... each year every person, regardless of age, in the nation is responsible for paying roughly $540 in regulatory costs. These burdens might take the form of higher prices, fewer jobs, or reduced wages," said AAF's Sam Batkins ... The staggering amount is likely to surge even higher as President Obama scrambles to...

President Obama plans to unleash more than $44 billion in midnight regulations before the ink in his pen runs out, according to a review of the administration’s rulemaking agenda. This last-ditch effort to regulate before President-elect Donald Trumptakes over in January will cap off an eight-year period marked by a historic pace of rulemaking from the Obama administration. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was expected to maintain many of the same regulatory policies as Obama, but after Trump’s surprising victory in the 2016 election and his promise to institute a moratorium on new rules, federal agencies are scrambling put the...

Well, look what’s back: the instantly compelling and ultimately confounding parlor game of “What do we do about flag burning?” Dormant for years, largely because this is something virtually no one ever does, the flag burning issue is back. You could hear it knocking lightly when several idiotic pro athletes decided to lodge their concerns over policing issues by showing public disdain for the flag that is a symbol of the nation that has made them free and wealthy. Throw in the Donald Trump victory, which has dredged up some of the most hateful and juvenile reactions in election history,...

Tue Nov 15, 2016 Exclusive: Billionaire Green Activist Steyer Vows To Battle Trump, Says Money Not An Issue By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who has spent more than $140 million on fighting climate change, said on Tuesday he will spend whatever it takes to fight President-elect Donald Trump's pro-drilling and anti-regulation agenda. The former hedge fund manager from California is putting together a strategy that will "engage voters and citizens to fight back" once Trump takes the White House in January, he told Reuters in an interview. However, he stressed he was not planning to fight...

Billionaire investor and Trump supporter Carl Icahn speaks with Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto about the president-elect's proposals to reduce regulations on business and the energy industry, why working people supported Donald Trump, and whether or not he would consider taking a role in the Trump administration. About Trump's appeal to working people, Icahn said: "The pundits all wonder what happened, but I think it was extremely simple... Think of a middle-class guy working out in the middle west. The real question is not why did he vote for [Trump], but why wouldn't he vote for him?" "I said to...

That's how you defang the oligarchic beast!

Few states pay closer attention to food than California. We are the cradle of the Central Valley and almond milk lattes, the home of of Full Belly Farms and Alice Waters and Ikeda markets, the state that introduced America to soda taxes and tomatoes to die for and cage-free hens.

President-elect Donald Trump said throughout his campaign for the White House that he wants major investments in U.S. infrastructure, calling for $1 trillion on infrastructure projects during his presidency.He reiterated the point in his victory speech last Wednesday. “We’re going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none.”However, major infrastructure bills are challenging pieces of legislation to pass, especially since Congress changed little in the election, says Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent...

Obama sets new record for regulations, 527 pages in just one day By @SecretsBedard) • 11/17/16 12:14 PM President Obama has just set a new record for rules and regulations, his administration spitting out 527 pages worth in just one day, as he races to put his fingerprint on virtually every corner of American life and business. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the administration has just shattered the old record for pages of regulations and rules published by the in-house journal, the Federal Register. At 81,640 total pages for 2016, it ranks first and 235 pages more than all...

Nearly 50 massive and costly regulations that cost Americans and businesses 53 million more hours filing paperwork and that have already put a $42 billion hit on the U.S. economy are being teed up for President-elect Trump to cut in his first weeks in office. Congressional officials and anti-regulation groups are tallying up some of the regulations the new president can eliminate under House and Senate rules.

Repeal them all.

President Obama has just set a new record for rules and regulations, his administration spitting out 527 pages worth in just one day, as he races to put his fingerprint on virtually every corner of American life and business. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the administration has just shattered the old record for pages of regulations and rules published by the in-house journal, the Federal Register. At 81,640 total pages for 2016, it ranks first and 235 pages more than all of those published in 2010, the previous record. What's more, there are still about 26 working days left...

Economy: When running for office, Donald Trump promised to reduce the regulatory burden on the economy. But before he gets a chance to do so, President Obama will likely add to those burdens with a last-minute regulatory rush. In a memo to her staff, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that "we're running — not walking — through the finish line of President Obama's presidency." The memo is indicative of what's come to be called "midnight regulations." These are rules an administration rushes out the door just before leaving. The number of rules increased in President Clinton's last year, and in...

On this, the day after the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president (yes, he has already updated his Twitter profile), President Barack Obama’s 2016 Federal Register page count stands at a record-level 78,898.The Federal Register, so emblematic of Washington excess, is where the hundreds of Washington bureaucracies post their proposed and final rules and regulations each day.Obama will break his own all-time record of 81,405 pages even before December gets here. Of the ten highest-ever Federal Register page counts, the incumbent president will own seven of them.Within those pages, several thousand rules get issued annually, no matter...

Prematurely accelerating the implementation of fully autonomous trucking (no driver in the cab) seems like an idea that could be fraught with risk. While driverless long-haul trucks have the potential to increase economic productivity by enabling more cost-effective transport of goods, the technology is not yet ready for prime time. There is growing pressure, however, to make it a reality sooner rather than later – particularly as long-distance trucking faces a worsening driver shortage. At the same time, highway infrastructure in many parts of the country is clearly inadequate even for today’s traffic, let alone a mixed bag of driven...

Texas and 20 other states have announced a lawsuit to block the Obama administration’s destructive overtime rules, which are slated to go into effect December 1, 2016. With less than 3-months to spare, victory in the case would save businesses and workers across the U.S. from this dehumanizing and economically damaging law. According to the new rule, salaried workers earning below $47,476 per year must be paid time-and-a-half for work done in excess of forty hours per week. This is up from a previous salary threshold of $23,660. The rule promises more pay for working long hours, more money for...

Detroit Bikes is a new company charting a challenging course. “The bike industry is very competitive. There are some really big companies that are very dominant. They have a lot of control,” says company founder, Zak Pashak. Not that he’s intimidated. Pashak had run successful ventures in the Canadian cities of Vancouver, British Columbia and Calgary, Alberta. But then, he was creating music festivals and concert venues. So what would compel him to make a product in a competitive industry, 1,900 miles away from Calgary, in Detroit, a city emerging from bankruptcy? “Starting a business obviously has a ton of...