'The Hill' Suddenly Realizes Obama Has Expanded Regulatory State

The Hill, a newspaper that focuses on Washington DC, seems to have finally noticed that Obama has greatly expanded the regulatory state during his first four years in office with an August 19 piece pointing out that, “Obama has overseen a dramatic expansion of the regulatory state that will outlast his time in the White House.”

In the article, authors Ben Goad and Julian Hattem note that Obama has steadily advanced the power of the executive branch, “solidifying the power of bureaucrats who churn out regulations that touch nearly every aspect of American life and business.”

The pair remind readers that Obama signaled early in his presidency his intentions to grow the regulatory state when he said he’d use his powers to act declaring: “Where Congress won’t act, I will.”

“Since then,” The Hill says, “the administration has pressed ahead unilaterally on several fronts, including immigration, gun control, cybersecurity and sentencing guidelines for drug offenses.”

Obama has not made this threat only once, of course. He has done so on numerous occasions saying he’d act without Congress on such things as climate change, jobs, and the economy.

The Hill goes on to say that during Obama’s reign the quantity of federal regulations is increasing “at a quickening pace.”

“And over Obama’s first three years in office, the Code of Federal Regulations increased by 7.4 percent, according to data compiled by the Chamber of Commerce. In comparison, the regulatory code grew by 4.4 percent during Bush’s first term,” the article says.

The Hill finds that an avalanche of regulations have emerged from Obamacare, to the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Energy Department as Obama seeks to force his ideas to address global warming and health care on America.

Others have been warning of Obama’s radical use of his powers to regulate, as well.

In 2011, for instance, Phil Kerpen wrote a book titled Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America–and How to Stop Him, to warn of this regulatory onslaught.

In the book Kerpen outlines the way that our country is being smothered in paper with the thousands of pages of new regulations being churned out weekly by the White House. He details the way the Obama administration, guided by a hardcore, left-wing ideology, is attempting to take control of the Internet, is trying to eliminate private property rights, is hampering the business sector in favor of big labor unionization, is using the outsized fear of global warming to ramp up a socialist-styled enlargement of government control on all fronts from the EPA to our energy sector, and more. 

In each case, Kerpen notes that this regulatory overreach is directly contrary to our American character and our core ideals.

As an aside, it is interesting to point out that growing the power of the executive branch is something that used to make the American left furious when George W. Bush was in the White House. Then the left warned of an “imperial presidency.” Today they are silent on the matter.

Finally, The Hill promises that this is just the first piece in a new series that will “look at the growth of the regulatory state and its impact on the country.”

This is a welcome addition to the subject, indeed, one of which many Americans are only dimly aware but one that is affecting nearly everything we do in every day life.