Regulation expert blasts Boehner on questioning cost of rulemaking

Wake Forest law professor and regulation expert Sidney Schapiro on Friday blasted House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) for criticizing plans by the Obama administration to implement 191 rules that would have an economic cost. 

"Regulatory opponents keep complaining about how much regulation costs, but what they never talk about is the cost of the failure to regulate," Schapiro said in prepared remarks. 

The professor points to the upcoming fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast as to what can happen when regulations are not sufficient. The storm hit the coast on Aug. 29.

"Various agencies of the federal government failed to protect the Gulf Coast from the full impact of Katrina, and now all these years later, we are seeing the same thing with the Deepwater Horizon Well," Schapiro said, noting that the Wall Street meltdown, the Toyota recall, mine explosions, E. coli and salmonella outbreaks are all connected to lacks regulation. 

"Instead of repeating the mantra that free markets are good and regulation is bad, lawmakers would be better off examining why the current system is not working," Schapiro said. "Regulation is vital, a lesson that regulatory opponents hope we forget despite Katrina, the Gulf oil spill and all of the other calamities generated by a failure to regulate effectively."  

Schapiro's comments stem from a letter Boehner sent on Monday to the White House that stated the "administration's published regulatory agenda includes a total of 191 planned rulemakings, each with an estimated annual cost to our economy of $100 million or more, and that a number of these planned rulemakings may each have an annual economic cost in excess of $1 billion." 

The Minority Leader warned the reforms would stifle economic growth by inundating businesses with complex rules.