Cutting (Ridiculous) Red Tape

The White House streamlines unnecessary regulations

By Bryan Walsh Monday, June 13, 2011

    • President Barack Obama has essentially been treated as a secret socialist by the business community since the day he moved into the White House. Not a good rep for re-election. So in January, Obama promised to "root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost or that are just plain dumb." On May 26 the White House released the results. Some of the particularly dumb ones:

    The EPA will no longer classify spilled milk at a dairy farm as an oil spill, saving $146 million. (No word on whether they will cry over it.)

    The Transportation Department will apply certain kinds of railroad safety equipment "only where they are actually needed"--seriously--saving up to $1 billion.

    The Treasury Department will drop references in some of its rules on Yugoslavia, a country that broke up in 2003.

    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will eliminate more than 1.9 million annual hours' worth of "redundant reporting requirements" for air quality, saving $40 million a year.