Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Obama's regulations holding back business--even hot dog sponsorships aren't safe

Charlie Brown, Santa Rosa, CA
Peanuts' Charlie Brown once remarked, "A hot dog just doesn't taste right without a ball game in front of it."

But the Obama administration views baseball and hot dogs as an adversarial relationship.

In an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times, Chief House Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R-IL) explains.

Appropriate and responsible regulations play an important policy making role. Yet the Obama administration has turned rule-making into an assault on American businesses and the jobs they create. Right now, 4,257 new regulations are in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually — 15 percent more than last year.

Just one rule has Chicago White Metal Casting, a Bensenville manufacturer employing 240, fighting to survive in an already tough economy. They'll soon face a restriction regulating greenhouse gases from stationary sources. After the congressional defeat of cap and trade, the EPA began implementing the job-destroying scheme through regulations. The EPA estimates this regulation will cost businesses $132 million the first year and add EPA oversight to 10,000 new facilities.

In an entirely different sector, Illinois-based food producer Sara Lee could soon face lower sales and higher costs and provide fewer jobs if the administration goes through with a particularly overreaching food regulation that would dramatically restrict their ability to advertise many food products — in the name of fighting childhood obesity.

While well-intentioned, the proposed guideline would eliminate Sara Lee-owned Ballpark Hot Dogs' sponsorship of baseball's Detroit Tigers, restrict athletes from appearing on General Mills' Wheaties cereal and restrict Sara Lee from advertising a lean turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread during the Super Bowl, all because people under 18 represent large audiences for these advertisements. The regulation of hot dog advertisements at baseball games won't create a single job.
Related post:

CPAC video: Peter Roskam on gas prices and the EPA

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1 comment:

RBlack said...

What amazes me is the apparent lack of ability within many people to see the outrage in this, (Even before Obama pushed the 'Hyper drive' button on regulation). As though climbing a ladder they refuse to look down to see how far off the ground they really are and instead view every additional regulation as just another rung on the ladder instead of an attack on the free market by an over-reaching government. They then settle and accept it and resign themselves just to be extra careful to not slip. If they stopped to think about how far we've come with this kind of government interference over many decades, you would think they'd be shocked and outraged.