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Jeb Bush Vows to Slash the Regulatory State. Nicely. Sort of.
Jeb Bush is back in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages this morning, explaining “How I’ll Slash the Regulation Tax.” Similar to his tax plan, there’s both rhetoric here to warm a conservative’s heart — whatever that means — and details that demonstrate how Bush simply doesn’t get the the expectations of the right wing of what should be his base (disclosure: I am a card-carrying member of the far right wing of what should be his base).
Bush starts by quoting important statistics from various think tanks and agencies: the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s 2015 finding that the federal regulation imposes a $1.88T silent tax on the economy each year ($15,000 for each American family) and the World Bank’s ranking of the United States’ 46th in terms of ease starting a business. He then does a very nice job characterizing the crony capitalist nature of the regulatory state:
These rules create a moat around America’s wealthiest and well-connected. They can afford to comply and absorb the costs. The burden of meeting the new rules’ requirements falls heaviest on everyone else though higher prices. And if a business can’t pass on the cost of the new rules to consumers, it just cuts wages or jobs.
This is sound reasoning and Bush deserves props for recognizing how the regulatory state helps his primary donor base to the detriment of others.
But he then makes some wild assertions about how his reforms will add three percentage points to our GDP by 2025. Combine that with Paul Ryan’s pie-in-the-sky 4%+ growth projections and all problems can (apparently) be solved while figuring out how to service national debt in excess of GDP.
So what isn’t to like? Bush’s prescription for dealing with the problem:
My administration will create a commission charged with reviewing regulations from the perspective of the regulated and shifting more power from Congress back to the states.
The solution for too much government is … more government. Quick, round up a commission! At least he hasn’t called it a blue ribbon panel yet. The quote above demonstrates Bush’s lack of understanding of the problem. It isn’t that Congress has too much power that should be devolved to the states; it’s that Congress has abdicated its responsibilities to the executive, in the form of agencies not accountable to voters or those they seek to regulate. Sen. Mike Lee does a great job summarizing this in his latest book.
Then, finally, Bush confirms what we already know about his brand of conservatism:
In my administration, every regulation, including those issued by the so-called independent agencies such as the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau [CFPB] will have to satisfy a rigorous White House review process, including cost benefit analysis.
This sums up his position nicely. The CFPB — a brain child of Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama — will have to submit its regulatory proposals to a White House commission for cost/benefit analysis. Sigh. The problem in America isn’t the lack of oversight over the CFPB and similar agencies, or that their regulations don’t pass review; the problem in America is that these agencies exist at all.
Bush confirms what the base has long suspected the Republican donor class strategy to be:
- The Democrats will build it. Warren/Obama CFPB, etc.
- The Republicans will fund it. We can’t possibly not raise the debt ceiling (insert wailing and gnashing of teeth). We must borrow from our children’s future to fund that which democrats have built.
- Republicans will subsequently ride to the rescue of the program. We will create a commission (more government) to manage the regulatory, bureaucracy, and welfare state better than the Democrats who created it, but will never repeal or eliminate anything.
Jeb Bush is a bright man of high integrity who just does not get it.
Published in Domestic Policy, Politics
Jeb is Bertie Wooster minus Jeeves.
And turn a conservative’s stomach.
Me too.
Yup.
Well said.
This mindset is so rampant and I’ve never been able to understand it.
Our leadership recently decided that we have about twice as many project managers as we need. Their solution?
They’ve hired a group of project managers to study the issue and recommend a course of action. Any guesses on how many of these new project managers become permanent members of the team?
All of them?
If only.
I am absolutely not satisfied with a mere rant or the usual Republican protestation of impotence.
I want reform, which may well begin with a rant but certainly will not end with one. I want it to be followed up with a sustained effort to both convince the electorate of the necessity and wisdom of not only creating that mechanism for rolling back the regulatory state but also for using it to roll back the regulatory state.
Nothing I’ve seen from Jeb! suggests he is capable of any of that.
I have no idea if Trump will be able to solve it or not, or if it is even solvable- but the key problem for the present American regime is the widespread belief that it is corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous.
I’m sorry to put that so bluntly, but I get the sense that the political class has no real appreciation of just how unpopular they really are.
Shrug. You asked.
What plans have been presented by other Presidential candidates that actually propose a method by which the President can begin to roll back the regulatory state?
And the solution to that is to support a candidate who is admittedly corrupt, has filed for bankruptcy multiple times and couldn’t make a Casino/Strip Club profitable in Atlantic City?
We have too many project managers. Let’s hire some project managers to look into that.
Aristotle Non Contradiction Face Palm
Brent,
Jeb Bush, just conservative enough to get elected in 1999. Boy, time flies when a Marxist-Jihadist sympathizer is in the White House and he and his political party of sycophants are dragging Western Civilization down a dark hole.
Jeb wants a political party like it was 1999. Too bad that would mean the collapse of civilization. But he’s such a nice guy.
Regards,
Jim
If you want me to keep playing you’re going to have to do more than ask questions and make assertions.
However, I will note that for Trump to be called “corrupt” when Jeb! actually gave Hillary Clinton a trophy- yes, that really happened- for some dumb-Jeb reason, in spite of her well-known and relentless corruption- well, I find that absolutely hilarious.
Wasn’t Jeb! alive during the 1990s? Didn’t he read the papers? How could he have failed to notice the infamous Clinton corruption?
You know- the criminal violations of law? The failure to comply with subpoenas? That sort of thing?
Or does he simply not have a problem with it?
That’s my guess, by the way.
Back to Trump- I’ve been repeatedly told by people in meatspace that Trump has a ready-made response to any accusation made against him- hey, I used the system, just like everyone else.
Remember when I said the political class had no appreciation of their unpopularity? I take that statement as a sign of it, because the usual suspects keep attacking Trump as if no one has lived through the last thirty years of American governance, and hence haven’t noticed what’s gone on.
Shrug. But everyone has.
Trump himself has admitted to buying an selling politicians – the very definition of corrupt. (How giving someone a trophy amounts to corruption is beyond me)
Trump himself has admitted to his businesses filing for bankruptcy and taking advantage of bankruptcy laws multiple times.
The evidence for Trumps failed Atlantic City venture is public and well known.
I’m not making assertions, I’m stating facts.
When the person giving the trophy claims to be a conservative and the person receiving it is rightly despised by conservatives, either money or favors were exchanged.
Regarding Trump’s buying and selling politicians, when you are in the real estate business at Trump’s level, you cannot avoid paying off politicians. It’s part of the cost of doing business. If you don’t pay up, all of your projects go bankrupt.
Now this is an assertion – and a libelous one.
Therefore he is the beacon of anti-corruption? That just makes no logical sense.
I suppose the other possibility is that Jeb! is lying about being a conservative. I guess that’s a little better than being a crook. Although either possibility indicates Jeb! is dishonest.
So if there’s a choice between two candidates who are dishonest, choose the less experienced one. His lies will be easier to spot, and he may still be capable of feeling shame.
Trump?!?
At least he knows who the crooked politicians are, should he choose to go after them. Indeed, if I’d had to kiss the arses of a bunch of bozos that I wouldn’t trust to sweep my floors, and I found myself in a position to sic the Justice Department on them, I just might do as Hercules did.
Certainly not Jeb. He thinks turning America over to illegal immigrants would be good for us. How shameless is that?
I see a variant of Bush Derangement Syndrome has descended on some who claim to be conservatives. The most unfortunate symptom is these self proclaimed conservatives have decided the cure is to support the most unconservative, corrupt, narcissistic candidate who has vied for the GOP nomination in a generation.
Are you talking about ¡Jeb!?
Well, I can see that Trump has been given at least two more weeks based on sneering opposition alone. Night, y’all.
Because every other time someone gives a large campaign contribution to a politician it’s on the up and up. Trump is the only corrupt person in this whole game. Got it.
And that trophy matters because it’s a sure sign that neither Jeb! nor his many friends have a problem with the endless Clinton corruption. I have a problem with that.
You mean Trump followed bankruptcy law? And had one of his ventures fail? So what?
I remain unmoved. Next you’ll be criticizing his taste in home decor, which is yet another thing I don’t care about it.
The bottom line, for me, so far at least- is that Trump notices the country has real problems. I don’t get that sense from the rest of the bunch, especially the guy who gave the person generally believed to be the most likely opponent to the eventual GOP nominee a trophy.
Just because he liked her, or something.