1. ObamaCare Has Been a Policy Failure - by Adam Brandon
Ahead of the November 1 launch of the 2017 open enrollment period for ObamaCare, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented:
“The Congressional Budget Office once projected that 24 million
people would enroll in health plans available through the ObamaCare
exchanges in 2016. That projection has gone up in smoke. The disastrous
rollout of the exchanges, coupled with the cost health plans and the
narrow physician networks, led to much lower enrollment figures. The
administration even revised down enrollment estimates by 30 percent and
had the audacity to take a victory lap after it had moved the goalposts
to claim success.”
“The truth is ObamaCare has been a policy failure. As premiums
rise, more and more people are waking up to the harsh realities and
sticker shock of extreme government intervention in the health care
system. Before its toxic tendrils spread any further, before it sends
our health care system into a death spiral, ObamaCare needs to be cut
out and replaced with a sensible patient-centered model.” Read more here...
2. Federal Judge Rules That EPA Must Account for Job Losses of Its Regulations - via Competitive Enterprise Institute
In a 17th October ruling, U.S. District Court Judge John Bailey
sided with Murray Energy and held that the Clean Air Act requires the
EPA to perform continuing evaluations of job losses due to the agency's
regulations.
To date, the agency has estimated the employment impacts of its
rules by using a model that assumes 1.5 jobs are created for every $1
million spent on regulatory compliance. The underlying premise of this
model is that jobs created in pollution control will always outpace job
losses in the regulated industry. Of course, this is a ridiculous
assumption. For starters, it sheds no light on actual job losses caused
by EPA rules; rather, job losses are merely assumed to be less than job
gains. More broadly, EPA’s employment model fails to pass the sniff
test: it is absurd to think that spending infinite resources on
regulatory compliance will forever lead to job gains. Read more here...
3. The USDA's Oversight of 'Organic' Labeling Is a Mess - via Reason
Last month, a federal judge in California refused to dismiss a
lawsuit challenging U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) actions
pertaining to its statutory oversight of organic food.
The case, filed last year by more than a dozen groups, challenges
changes to the procedures under which the agency determines whether
certain synthetic substances may continue to be used in food the agency
permits to be labeled as organic.
Under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which gave the USDA
authority over organic-food labeling, the agency maintains a list of
synthetic substances that may be used in organic products. Decisions
about any substance on the list had been forced to sunset after five
years unless two-thirds of the agency's National Organic Standards Board
(NOSB) recommended a given substance remain on the list. Read more here...
4. Coalition of States Fights Against Destructive New Overtime Regulations - by Kenny Stein
This month, a coalition of 21 states suing the federal government
asked for an emergency injunction to delay the implementation of the
Obama administration’s new overtime regulations while the states fight
the rules in court. These new regulations are an attack on small
employers and job flexibility and need to be stopped. Many small
businesses, which will be most harmed by these new regulations, are not
even aware of the new compliance costs facing them starting December 1.
The new overtime rules are “dehumanizing and economically harmful”
to them and the nation. Under current Department of Labor (DOL) rules,
salaried workers with certain types of job responsibilities and are paid
more than $23,660 can be classified as exempt from overtime pay. This
classification allows for flexible working arrangements, liberating
employees from punching a clock, and reducing compliance costs for
businesses who don’t have to track what their employees are doing at any
given second. Read more here...
5. Pool Contractors Want To Be Licensed So They Can Charge Higher Prices - via Reason
New Jersey could create a new category of professional licenses, and
no one is even bothering to pretend that it's about anything other than
driving up prices and limiting competition.
That's what licensing schemes usually do, of course, but they are
usually passed under the guise of protecting consumers' health or
safety. Without mandatory government permission slips, the story usually
goes, unscrupulous businesses would cheat you out of your money or
poison your children.
So give credit to Lawrence Caniglia for refusing to play those
semantic games. Caniglia is the executive director of the Northeast Spa
and Pool Association, which is pushing a bill in New Jersey to require a
state license for anyone who installs, builds or services a pool or
spa. Read more here...
Jason Pye
Communications Director, FreedomWorks
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