The Competitive Enterprise Institute has released a handy guide for lawmakers, and the title explains all: “Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 116th Congress.”
The advice from the nonprofit public policy organization is straightforward. Reduce the clutter of federal regulations that stifle American lives and livelihoods, and prosperity will follow.
“The governance of American life has been handed over to an operating system that subtly and perversely drives individuals’ behavior away from their own decisions. Unaccountable regulatory agencies dominate how we live, work, play, build, travel, prepare food, and heal one another,” wrote Kent Lassman, president of the organization, in the report’s introduction.
“Did you know it is a federal crime to sell chewing gum that is more than 0.065 percent beeswax or to sell vegetable spaghetti bigger than 0.11 inch in diameter? We have all seen the photos of the Federal Register that look like mountains of paper. But what do those pages mean for real people?” Mr. Lassman asked.
The free, 177-page advisory, available here, and covers nine areas — regulatory reform and agency oversight; trade; banking and finance; energy and environment; private and public lands; technology and telecommunications; labor and employment; food, drugs and consumer freedom; and transportation.
“Unaccountable regulatory agencies dominate how we live, work, play, build, travel, prepare food and heal one another — and perversely drive people away from common-sense decisions,” Mr. Lassman said in a statement. “Americans already have an outstanding system to set the rules by which we live and work. Our Constitution requires Congress to make the laws. Our agenda for the 116th Congress points the way toward a restoration of lawmaking in the Congress and a more resilient economy for all of us.”
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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