Madison and regulatory uncertainty

Link to Inhofe EPW Press Blog With Congress on hiatus until the lame duck session, we searched for some perspective on the underlying causes of the lackluster economy. It's clear that 9.6 percent unemployment and sluggish growth stem in good measure from the regulatory uncertainty emanating from Washington.

---

As we've documented elsewhere, one of the principal agencies driving the uncertainty is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-imposing intricate, costly rules and mandates, opaque and legally dubious in many instances, on businesses of all shapes and sizes in nearly every sector of the economy. The danger this poses to job creation and economic recovery seems clear enough. In our view, no one better articulates this danger than James Madison. Were Madison alive today, having had a few days to study EPA's agenda, he would surely have been inspired to write much the same as he did in Federalist #62. As we head into the weekend, we leave you with Madison: In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.

---