Is President Obama in over his head?

On Tuesday, the AP reported, “President Barack Obama says his administration is considering seven new government regulations that would cost the economy more than $1 billion each a year, a tally Republicans will pounce on to argue that Congress needs the power to approve costly government rules. In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Obama lists four proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules and three Transportation Department rules estimated to cost in excess of $1 billion. One of the proposed EPA rules – an update to the health-based standard for smog – is estimated to cost the economy between $19 billion and $90 billion. . . . Obama’s letter was in response to a Boehner request last week for more details from the president on the proposed costs of the most expensive regulations under consideration by his administration. Obama’s administration has identified 219 proposed regulations this year with a cost to the economy of more than $100 million each.”

In an op-ed last week, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) explained these expensive regulations are making it ever harder to create the jobs this country needs for economic growth. “Last year, President Obama promised Americans a recovery summer. This year, he’s given us a regulatory summer. He’s thrown a giant wet blanket on economic recovery and has given Americans a summer of more burdens, more costs and more rules. . . . The president said on his recent bus tour that ‘there is some red tape that needs to be cut, and we should cut it.’ Yet in just one week in August, two new rules were finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – rules that increased the regulatory burden on job creators by $10 billion. . . . New regulations and uncertainty continue to take a toll on our economy. America’s job creators should not have to suffer through another summer of Washington’s job-destroying regulations.”

Clearly Americans are not impressed with the Obama administration’s economic record. CNN reports today, “Only a third of all Americans approve of how President Barack Obama is handling the economy, according to a new national survey. And with a CNN/ORC International Poll also indicating that more than three-quarters of the public say the country is in bad shape right now, there’s little wonder why the president is getting such low marks.”

Related:

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