The Regulation / Prosperity Trade-Off

Carol Platt Liebau | December 06, 2010 4:46 PM

The Washington Examiner points out that President Obama is preparing to govern through executive order and regulations ("defying the will of the people," the paper notes -- not surprising for someone who was willing to jam down the most unpopular major piece of legislation in living memory).

Likewise, today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Ben Lieberman notes that more (and more onerous) regulations mean more pink slips for government workers.

And that's the take home lesson here. Certainly, regulations theoretically operate to make us less free -- but what voters should also understand is that they also, concretely, make us less prosperous. The lesson drives home the danger of big government leftism for people who don't otherwise spend much time mulling the implications of political theories (or worrying about an abstract loss of "freedom" in areas with which they themselves don't have contact).

For a left-leaning President like Obama, there's a trade-off. He can enact his government-empowering agenda, or his fellow countrymen can prosper.

We are continuing to be shown where his priorities lie. And every American should know it by 2012, too.