Rep. Issa to Big Business: What Regulations Should GOP Fight?In news from Capitol Hill, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has asked the oil industry, drug manufacturers, healthcare providers and telecom firms to tell him which government regulations he should target this year as the new chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. According to Politico, Issa has sent letters to more than 150 trade associations, companies and think tanks last month requesting a list of existing and proposed regulations that would harm job growth. At least two recipients of Issa's letter - the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association - complained about new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards for greenhouse gas emissions for major polluters that went into effect Sunday.
The way Democracy Now! framed this, in terms of Issa reaching out to most of the most powerful oligopolies in America--"the oil industry, drug manufacturers, healthcare providers and telecom firms"--was precisely right, since this is whose interests the Republican right really serves. Politico's original story, however, was much more Issa-friendly, essentially taking the stenographic approach of simply reporting the story as Issa's press office wanted it told:
Issa to business: Tell me what to fix
By: Darren Goode
January 3, 2011 10:02 PM ESTRep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants the oil industry, drug manufacturers and other trade groups and companies to tell him which Obama administration regulations to target this year.
The incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee - in letters sent to more than 150 trade associations, companies and think tanks last month - requested a list of existing and proposed regulations that would harm job growth.
"It was a broad net that we cast," Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella said.
Bardella did not have a complete list of groups that received an inquiry from Issa or their responses.
But a partial list obtained by POLITICO includes ones sent Dec. 13 to Duke Energy, the Association of American Railroads, FMC Corp., Toyota and Bayer. Others receiving inquiries from Issa over the course of the month included the American Petroleum Institute, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) and entities representing health care and telecommunication providers.
The goal is to investigate the Obama administration's promise through the 2009 economic stimulus bill and other measures to create jobs, which "has gone unfilled, I guess is the nicest way to put it," Bardella said.
"Is there something that we can do to try to ease that [regulatory] burden and stimulate job creation?" he added. "Is there a pattern emerging? Is there a consistent practice or regulation that hurts jobs? Until you have all the facts, you really can't make a lot of determinations and judgments."
Behind Issa's twisting of reality that Politico's reporting reinforces is one fundamental denial of axiomatic economic reality--that demand is what creates jobs, above and beyond all other things--as well as the denial of a couple of other fundamental facts about recent economic history: First, that the economic stimulus package did save and/or create millions of jobs ("Obama's Economic Stimulus Program Created Up to 3.3 Million Jobs, CBO Says"--Bloomberg News, Aug. 25)--even while the need was vastly under-estimated (Paul Krugman, more occassions than you can shake a stick at). Second, that 1.4 million jobs created by American companies last year were created overseas, compared to just 1 million here in the US.
Although quite common in Versailles media practice, this is a perfect example of what Jay Rosen was talking about in his "Top-10" post that I discussed last week in "The Age of Innocence". Rosen's focus was a report on the Tea Party which failed to note that their "narrative of impending tyranny" was utterly divorced from reality. As Rosen wrote:[T]he Times editors and Barstow know this narrative is nuts, but something stops them from saying so-despite the fact that they must have spent over $100,000 on this one story. And whatever that thing is, it's not the reluctance to voice an opinion in the news columns, but a reluctance to report a fact in the news columns....
The same thing is happening here. Issa's claims are clearly counterfactual. Which is to say, they are lies. But "good journalists" don't say such things. "Good journalists" repeat lies, they don't expose them.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) plays a fairly prominent role in the reporting of this story, giving the impression that Issa is really onto something, about Obama's regulatory policies stiffling job growth in manufacturing:
"As a trade organization with members that must comply with the regulatory state, I ask for your assistance in identifying existing and proposed regulations that have negatively impacted job growth in your members' industry," Issa wrote in a Dec. 8 letter to NAM. "Additionally, suggestions on reforming identified regulations and the rulemaking process would be appreciated."The letter to NAM is a template for ones Issa sent other groups over the course of last month. In the NAM letter, Issa notes that federal agencies in fiscal year 2010 "promulgated 43 new regulations" ranging from new limits on "effluent" discharges from construction sites to rules for Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations. The "effluent" rule, Issa charged, will cost $810.8 million annually, resulting in the closure of 147 construction firms and the loss of 7,257 jobs.
The list of regulatory grievances appears wide-ranging.
Rosario Palmieri, NAM's vice president for regulatory policy, and Drevna both highlighted EPA greenhouse gas controls for major emitters that went into effect Sunday.
Palmieri said the group also highlighted in their response to Issa upcoming EPA decisions over whether to tighten limits on ground-level ozone and controlling hazardous air pollutants from incinerators and boilers.
Many Democrats and the environmental community certainly would push back on efforts to rein in EPA greenhouse and other controls simply in the name of preserving jobs. "The Clean Air Act is one of job creation, not job destruction, plain and simple," said Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund. These controls give companies "the lead time and certainty to invest and bring products to the market and actually create jobs."
NAM's "high-priority" regulatory list also includes OSHA consultation, noise and other policies, upcoming Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission controls regarding over-the-counter derivatives, Transportation Department limits on hours of service for truck drivers, and implementing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act signed into law in 2008 by President George W. Bush.
"These are all high-priority regulations that can cost manufacturing jobs and will if implemented the wrong way or will as currently proposed or finalized," Palmieri said. "We're anxious for some oversight of these programs."
He said there is a growing voice from "members on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, recognizing that the cumulative burden of regulation is a real problem and if we want to create more jobs and improve this economy, we need to get a handle on it."
But this is virtually identical to the Times reporting on the Tea Party's "narrative of impending tyranny" without bothering to note that the narrative is nuts. Why is it nuts to blame Obama's regulations for destroying American manufacturing jobs? Because George W. Bush--one of the most anti-regulatory presidents ever--utterly decimated American manufacturing jobs:
Democracy Now! got this story 100% right, framing it in terms of Issa reaching out to partner with the oligopolies that are sucking America dry. And Politico, acting as Issa's stenographer, got the story 100% wrong, just as they routinely do. After all, they are part of the same club of oligolopolies that are not-so-slowly destroying America, neo-feudal overlords at war with American democracy and the American people.
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