George Mason University study criticizes anemic federal review of regulations

Cut the weeds!

President Obama promised government transparency while campaigning for president four years ago--and while a recently released study by the George Mason University's Mercatus Center compliments "the president's directive to measure and improve the actual results of regulatory requirements is a welcome step," he criticizes federal agencies for their inability to initiate meaningful reviews of the costs and the wisdom of current regulations.

How many regs are there? A mere 165,000 pages of federal code exists.

The study's author, Randall Lutter, writes, "The Code of Federal Regulations had 165,494 pages in 2010, and since 1970, the total pages have tripled, growing at an average of about 2.8% annually. Such a long and complicated set of regulations exceeds comprehension and taxes the resources of entrepreneurs."

To me, transparency includes slashing the weeds of government regulations that is strangling commerce in this great nation.

Lutter adds, "Reconsider the scope of retrospective analysis. Evaluating regulatory programs rather than individual regulations may address the issue of whether or not the rule should exist. With approximately 165,000 pages of extant rules, a wholesale approach focused on regulatory programs may be more likely to cover the wide scope of federal rules than a retail approach focused on individual regulations."

In other words, cut the weeds.

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