Within the January 2025 situation of Motive, we’re giving efficiency critiques of Joe Biden’s presidency. Click on right here to learn the opposite entries.
On home regulatory points, Biden has proven initiative and a willingness to go above and past what is named for. It is too dangerous that is the other of what a superb presidential job efficiency entails. The best candidate right here is somebody unwilling or unmotivated to search out new retailers for regulation, however the Biden administration has proved all too wanting to increase the regulatory state’s attain.
Take Biden’s obsession with “junk charges,” by which he means mainly something a enterprise expenses for perks (akin to checking baggage throughout a flight) or as penalties (like financial institution overdraft charges). Such charges can serve vital and bonafide functions, however Biden has framed all of them as easy factors of company “greed.” As a result of it may’t straight get rid of them, the administration has determined they should be disclosed specifically methods—saving Individuals from the ache of, say, having to examine cable prices in two separate lines instead of one.
It is foolish, certain, but it surely exemplifies the administration’s perception that mainly any space of enterprise is truthful recreation for federal regulators. And Biden’s enterprise micromanagement extends approach past charge disclosures.
Following Biden orders, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) outlawed noncompete clauses (a rule a federal choose has already rejected because the FTC overstepping its authority) and adopted a proposed “coverage of higher scrutiny of mergers.”
The Division of Labor proposed a rule that might make it harder for folks to work as unbiased contractors and one other that might enormously increase the variety of employees eligible for additional time pay.
Biden has additionally tried to make use of government and regulatory actions to override state insurance policies and personal property rights. As an example, he directed the Division of Well being and Human Providers to declare {that a} federal Medicaid rule means hospitals should carry out emergency abortions even in states the place they’re banned. He additionally desires to make it simpler for the feds to grab pharmaceutical patents when politicians imagine costs are too excessive.
Biden claims such strikes are about issues like selling competitors and defending reproductive freedom. However even when these are the tip outcomes—and it is usually fairly questionable—they accomplish these issues by substituting the judgment of the federal authorities for the judgment of employers, staff, shoppers, state lawmakers, and everybody else.
Regulation efficiency assessment: extreme micromanaging
This text initially appeared in print underneath the headline “Regulator in Chief.”
