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Washington Crucifies Job Creators
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One Big Awful Mistake America
May 4, 2012, 12:20:29 PM5/4/12
to
Well, hot diggity dog. At least one mean-spirited, overzealous
Washington regulator got what was coming to him this week. Al
Armendariz, a regional director of the Environmental Protection
Agency, was forced to quit his job when some of his intemperate
remarks got publicized. It would be great if the same thing
happened to a few thousand of his fellow bureaucrats.
Armendariz was in charge of enforcing EPA regulations in Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico. He was appointed
to his post in November 2009 by President Barack Obama and
quickly demonstrated a zeal for the job. He was infamous for his
office’s harsh prosecution — many would say persecution — of any
company that fell afoul of EPA regulations.
In a lecture two years ago, Armendariz explained his “philosophy
of enforcement” to the audience:
It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer
villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish
town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and
they’d crucify them. And then, you know, that town was really
easy to manage for the next few years.
That’s a pretty chilling and cold-blooded attitude, wouldn’t you
say? Notice that guilt or innocence has nothing to do with
Armendariz’s methodology. All he’s concerned about is how
quickly and how ruthlessly he can intimidate his subjects.
How would you like to have someone with this philosophy
determining the future of the company you work for? Or founded?
Or any private enterprise in this country, for that matter?
Well, the sad truth is, there are thousands of petty tyrants
like Armendariz working for your government — and being paid by
your tax dollars — in hundreds of Federal bureaucracies. The
only unique thing about Armendariz is that he got caught.
Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) deserves a tip of the hat for
shining a spotlight on this particular cockroach. It happened
because Inhofe decided to investigate an EPA vendetta against
Range Resources, a drilling company the EPA accused of
contaminating local water supplies. A lengthy investigation
exonerated the firm, but not until Armendariz and his staff had
done as much damage as they could to the company. As you
probably know, the only energy producers the Administration of
President Barack Obama likes are the wind and solar ones that
need millions of dollars in Federal subsidies to survive. In the
case of Solyndra Inc., $500 million in subsidies couldn’t keep
it going.
But if you’re a for-profit producer of coal or oil or natural
gas, forget it. You’ve got a big, bright bull’s eye painted on
the middle of your back. And it was put there by Obama and his
environmentalist buddies.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a lengthy opinion
piece by Bob McDonnell, in which the Virginia Governor lamented
how the Obama Administration pulled the rug out of from under
plans to develop his State’s offshore oil and gas resources. He
explained, “In 2010, Virginia was poised to become the first
state on the East Coast permitted to produce oil and natural gas
offshore.”
But the plans were nixed by Washington “with little explanation
and even less regard for the strong bipartisan and public
support for the offshore initiative.” Three months later, the
Administration added insult to injury when it announced plans to
subsidize wind-power development in Virginia’s waters.
And the same thing is happening from the Gulf Coast to Alaska.
Profit-making (and tax-paying) private companies that want to
develop our oil and gas resources are told “no way, Jose.” One
project in Alaska that McDonnell cites could have created 55,000
new jobs annually — not to mention $145 billion in new payroll
and $193 billion in additional government revenue. In case after
case, it was a government bureaucrat — not the marketplace —
that put the kibosh on the project.
And don’t get me started about the Keystone XL pipeline. Thanks
to the Administration’s intransigence, thousands of jobs — and
billions of barrels of oil — that could have been flowing from
Canada to Texas and Oklahoma may now be going to China.
By the way, it’s not just Federal regulators who can promulgate
some crazy rules. So can State and local governments, as many
homeowners can testify. Just ask Joseph Pomares, who was
recently cited for having “standing water” in a birdbath he
added to a rental home he owns in Astoria, N.Y. A new regulation
to the health code there makes landlords responsible for any
infractions found on their property that could lead to the
“breeding or harborage” of mosquitoes. It seems regulators there
take their responsibilities to prevent West Nile virus very
seriously. The citation he received advised Pomares that he was
in violation of Article 151 of the city’s health code and could
face a $2,000 fine if the situation was not remedied at once.
No doubt I could fill 100 more pages with similar injustices and
outrages across this country. I was going to say that it was no
doubt impossible to estimate the cost of complying with all the
rules and regulations that have been inflicted on us by a Big
Nanny government run amuck.
But if I said that, I’d be wrong. It turns out that the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-free market think tank
in Washington, has undertaken precisely such a study. And CEI
says the total cost to our economy of government regulation
amounts to a staggering $1.75 trillion a year.
To help put that price tag in perspective, CEI reports
“Regulatory costs exceed all 2008 corporate pretax profits of
$1.463 trillion.” How many jobs has it cost us? It’s impossible
to know for certain, but the number is likely in the millions.
Speaking of unemployment, permit me to repeat something I
pointed out in a Chip Shots item last week. Administration
officials have pointed with pride to the latest unemployment
figure, which allegedly has fallen to 8.2 percent. This is based
on claims that 120,000 new jobs were added to the economy in
March.
But buried deep in the report is the news that far more
Americans who got new jobs dropped out of the labor force that
month. The “no longer looking for work” numbers swelled by
164,000.
Just think about it: If every unemployed person stopped looking
for work, our unemployment rate would be 0. That’s the sort of
“recovery” this administration is giving us.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said that
King George had “erected a Multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out
their substance.”
Frankly, compared to what this Administration has done to us,
our rebellious forefathers had it easy. Don’t you agree?
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
–Chip Wood
http://personalliberty.com/2012/05/04/washington-crucifies-job-
creators/?eiid=
Washington regulator got what was coming to him this week. Al
Armendariz, a regional director of the Environmental Protection
Agency, was forced to quit his job when some of his intemperate
remarks got publicized. It would be great if the same thing
happened to a few thousand of his fellow bureaucrats.
Armendariz was in charge of enforcing EPA regulations in Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico. He was appointed
to his post in November 2009 by President Barack Obama and
quickly demonstrated a zeal for the job. He was infamous for his
office’s harsh prosecution — many would say persecution — of any
company that fell afoul of EPA regulations.
In a lecture two years ago, Armendariz explained his “philosophy
of enforcement” to the audience:
It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer
villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish
town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and
they’d crucify them. And then, you know, that town was really
easy to manage for the next few years.
That’s a pretty chilling and cold-blooded attitude, wouldn’t you
say? Notice that guilt or innocence has nothing to do with
Armendariz’s methodology. All he’s concerned about is how
quickly and how ruthlessly he can intimidate his subjects.
How would you like to have someone with this philosophy
determining the future of the company you work for? Or founded?
Or any private enterprise in this country, for that matter?
Well, the sad truth is, there are thousands of petty tyrants
like Armendariz working for your government — and being paid by
your tax dollars — in hundreds of Federal bureaucracies. The
only unique thing about Armendariz is that he got caught.
Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) deserves a tip of the hat for
shining a spotlight on this particular cockroach. It happened
because Inhofe decided to investigate an EPA vendetta against
Range Resources, a drilling company the EPA accused of
contaminating local water supplies. A lengthy investigation
exonerated the firm, but not until Armendariz and his staff had
done as much damage as they could to the company. As you
probably know, the only energy producers the Administration of
President Barack Obama likes are the wind and solar ones that
need millions of dollars in Federal subsidies to survive. In the
case of Solyndra Inc., $500 million in subsidies couldn’t keep
it going.
But if you’re a for-profit producer of coal or oil or natural
gas, forget it. You’ve got a big, bright bull’s eye painted on
the middle of your back. And it was put there by Obama and his
environmentalist buddies.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a lengthy opinion
piece by Bob McDonnell, in which the Virginia Governor lamented
how the Obama Administration pulled the rug out of from under
plans to develop his State’s offshore oil and gas resources. He
explained, “In 2010, Virginia was poised to become the first
state on the East Coast permitted to produce oil and natural gas
offshore.”
But the plans were nixed by Washington “with little explanation
and even less regard for the strong bipartisan and public
support for the offshore initiative.” Three months later, the
Administration added insult to injury when it announced plans to
subsidize wind-power development in Virginia’s waters.
And the same thing is happening from the Gulf Coast to Alaska.
Profit-making (and tax-paying) private companies that want to
develop our oil and gas resources are told “no way, Jose.” One
project in Alaska that McDonnell cites could have created 55,000
new jobs annually — not to mention $145 billion in new payroll
and $193 billion in additional government revenue. In case after
case, it was a government bureaucrat — not the marketplace —
that put the kibosh on the project.
And don’t get me started about the Keystone XL pipeline. Thanks
to the Administration’s intransigence, thousands of jobs — and
billions of barrels of oil — that could have been flowing from
Canada to Texas and Oklahoma may now be going to China.
By the way, it’s not just Federal regulators who can promulgate
some crazy rules. So can State and local governments, as many
homeowners can testify. Just ask Joseph Pomares, who was
recently cited for having “standing water” in a birdbath he
added to a rental home he owns in Astoria, N.Y. A new regulation
to the health code there makes landlords responsible for any
infractions found on their property that could lead to the
“breeding or harborage” of mosquitoes. It seems regulators there
take their responsibilities to prevent West Nile virus very
seriously. The citation he received advised Pomares that he was
in violation of Article 151 of the city’s health code and could
face a $2,000 fine if the situation was not remedied at once.
No doubt I could fill 100 more pages with similar injustices and
outrages across this country. I was going to say that it was no
doubt impossible to estimate the cost of complying with all the
rules and regulations that have been inflicted on us by a Big
Nanny government run amuck.
But if I said that, I’d be wrong. It turns out that the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-free market think tank
in Washington, has undertaken precisely such a study. And CEI
says the total cost to our economy of government regulation
amounts to a staggering $1.75 trillion a year.
To help put that price tag in perspective, CEI reports
“Regulatory costs exceed all 2008 corporate pretax profits of
$1.463 trillion.” How many jobs has it cost us? It’s impossible
to know for certain, but the number is likely in the millions.
Speaking of unemployment, permit me to repeat something I
pointed out in a Chip Shots item last week. Administration
officials have pointed with pride to the latest unemployment
figure, which allegedly has fallen to 8.2 percent. This is based
on claims that 120,000 new jobs were added to the economy in
March.
But buried deep in the report is the news that far more
Americans who got new jobs dropped out of the labor force that
month. The “no longer looking for work” numbers swelled by
164,000.
Just think about it: If every unemployed person stopped looking
for work, our unemployment rate would be 0. That’s the sort of
“recovery” this administration is giving us.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said that
King George had “erected a Multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out
their substance.”
Frankly, compared to what this Administration has done to us,
our rebellious forefathers had it easy. Don’t you agree?
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
–Chip Wood
http://personalliberty.com/2012/05/04/washington-crucifies-job-
creators/?eiid=
Jean
May 4, 2012, 2:23:15 PM5/4/12
to
In article <679FP3V2410...@reece.net.au>,
"One Big Awful Mistake America" <mis...@barackobama.com> wrote:
> Well, hot diggity dog...
Is this on C-Span?
--
American Legislative Exchange Council Wanders from Mission: http://goo.gl/GgZoM
Cookie! http://www.bakesmartonline.com/bethel/order.php?id=524&size=1727l
Michael Hastings Buzzfeed http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings
http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-12-karin-hayes-victoria-bruce/
"One Big Awful Mistake America" <mis...@barackobama.com> wrote:
> Well, hot diggity dog...
Is this on C-Span?
--
American Legislative Exchange Council Wanders from Mission: http://goo.gl/GgZoM
Cookie! http://www.bakesmartonline.com/bethel/order.php?id=524&size=1727l
Michael Hastings Buzzfeed http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings
http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-12-karin-hayes-victoria-bruce/
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