Americans Oppose Burdensome Regulations Starting With Those Enacted By Obama's Labor Board

For some time, we have been saying that Americans are concerned with the overly burdensome and stifling regulations coming from unelected bureaucrats in government agencies more concerned with rewarding special interests than facilitating job creation.  This week, two separate polls revealed that voters believe government is getting in the way of business and that there is wide-spread opposition to the actions of the Obama Administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

A recent Tarrance Group poll shows the extent of the voter opposition with 74 percent saying they believe “businesses and consumers are over-regulated.”

Certainly many Americans have heard of the NLRB’s decisions that threaten a loss of jobs and business closures in an effort to payback Big Labor bosses who funnel hundreds of millions into Democrat political campaigns.  Whether it’s the NLRB’s decision to require nearly all the nation’s private employers to post partisan notices of employees’ right to unionize, its proposed rule to close the election window and ambush employees and employers with a union vote, or to permit the formation of micro-units watering down the definition of a collective bargaining unit to give labor bosses a better chance to gain a foothold in the workplace, Americans are fed up with the job-killing rules this administration is adopting by regulatory fiat.

These anti-growth actions of government agencies include the National Mediation Board (NMB) that overturned nearly a century of precedent in order to force unionization on workers in the airline and railroad industries.  It also includes the Department of Labor’s proposed rule expanding the public disclosure requirements for employers, law firms, consultants and trade associations that provide labor relations advice to employers during a union organizing drive.  This rule, if implemented, will result in depriving employers of advice they need and in essence gag them from expressing their views in opposition to the formation of a union in their workplace.

But anti-regulatory sentiment is best reflected in response to the NLRB’s complaint against the Boeing Company for opening a new non-union facility in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.  According to the Tarrance Group, “78 percent of voters side with Boeing in agreeing that a business should be able to open a facility in any state, and that the government should not be involved in the decision about where Boeing or any company locates new plants.”

The result of the Tarrance poll is fully supported by this week’s Rasmussen poll that demonstrates the depth of the opposition to Obama’s labor board with 59 percent of union members agreeing that Boeing should be able to operate its South Carolina plant.

It appears that President Obama is in tune, at least rhetorically, with the sentiment of the American people.  He recently stated in his address to a joint session of Congress that “[w]e should have no more regulation than the health, safety, and security of the American people require.”

Yet when it comes time to stand up for workers and businesses, the president’s words are hollow and he is nowhere to be found.  Instead, union bosses seem to be calling the shots.   American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Richard Trumka even brags about speaking with someone from the White House every day, including weekends.

With our economy stalling and millions of workers unable to find employment, Americans want strong and pragmatic leadership.  Yet the Obama Administration is unwilling to respond and restrain its left-wing regulators who are smothering job creators with onerous and burdensome new rules and regulations that inject uncertainty and anxiety into the marketplace instead of stability and confidence.  As a result, few employers are hiring, purchasing new equipment or expanding their businesses.  They are leery of the agenda being aggressively pursued in Washington and the effect it will have on their business.

If President Obama wants to turn our economy around, the polling data demonstrates a clear way.  He should step out from behind the teleprompter and tell his labor agencies to cease and desist from punishing employers and immediately stop the regulatory assault that is strangling our economy.