Darrell Issa's anti-regulation scam - easier than stealing cars

Car-thieving, Gray Davis-recalling, anti-F-word Congressman Darrell Issa has released the letters from concerned businesses (Ok, mostly lobbyists) about regulations they feel should be wiped from the books. Shockingly, it seems businesses don’t like regulations.

A searchable version of these letters can be found at the bottom of this post, via Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The Big Lie in Issa’s outreach to his corporate overlords is that – while he claims it’s a chance for these corporations and organizations to have a chance to be heard – the very same corporations already had their chance to fight against the regulations. That’s how regulations work in the U.S. – opposing viewpoints are always heard. From Timothy Noah in Slate:

A committee press release congratulates Issa for bringing “the voice of job creators nationwide directly to Washington,” but Washington is no stranger to the needs and desires of business. Regulations typically are issued in a three-step process. First comes the “proposed rule,” which is published in the Federal Register. Then the public is invited to comment on the proposal and how it should be changed. What’s that you say? You’ve never offered your opinion about a proposed regulation to a federal agency? That’s because “the public” is in this instance a euphemism for business interests, which provide the overwhelming majority of comments on proposed regulations. The federal agency in question reviews various criticisms from business (along with an occasional comment sent in from a nonprofit representing the health, safety, or economic concerns of the broader public) and makes whatever adjustments it deems necessary. The White House meanwhile looks over the agency’s shoulder and offers, through its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs—currently administered by Cass “Nudge” Sunstein—its own opinion about how the rule should be written. Then the agency issues a final rule. If the government issues a regulation that business doesn’t like, it isn’t because the government failed to consider how it would affect business. It’s because it weighed the arguments from business and found them wanting. (A more detailed explanation of how a rule is enacted is available here PDF.)

Business dominates the regulatory process so thoroughly—even in Democratic administrations—that it’s hard to escape the suspicion that Issa’s real purpose in soliciting business opinion was to elicit contributions to his campaign committee or to his two leadership political action committees.

Or, as the Washington Post simplifies even more:

In many cases, businesses are seizing the opportunity to reopen regulatory debates that they previously lost.

Issa’s dog-and-pony show will lead to a grand effort by Republicans to kill the EPA, gut the SEC and rid the nation of pesky regulations that keep many large corporations from flat-out murdering U.S. citizens. And that doesn’t even get into Issa’s interest in curtailing the use of the Freedom of Information Act.

Issa is purely a corporate tool. He has no interest in creating a single job for any American, or giving any American a “voice.” His interest is to keep corporate money flowing into his coffers. It’s a far better scam than stealing cars, after all. And you don’t become the richest person in Congress (with $300 million) by having things like ethics or an interest in the word of the law.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s not without his fans. Like “Crazy Eddie’s” fraudster Sam Antar, for instance:

To Congressman Issa: I wish you were around in the 1980s. I’d still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today. We need more people like you

–WKW

Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles