OIRA@2050

From: The Hill

By Kevin Bogardus

A long-running Washington watchdog group that closely tracks federal regulations is getting a new name.

OMB Watch will now be known as the Center for Effective Government, the group announced Monday. Katherine McFate, the group’s president and CEO, said the new moniker is a better reflection of their work.

“Center for Effective Government better reflects the overall goal of our work and the breadth of the issues we cover. It makes clear our commitment to promoting the idea that ‘government matters’ and that an effective, responsive, accountable government is fundamental to restoring public trust in democracy and to achieving a more just, sustainable, inclusive economy,” McFate said in a statement.

From: Forbes

Wayne Crews/Competitive Enterprise Institute

The premise that national top-down  regulation of the economy brings substantial net benefits dominates public policy.

But forget the philosophical debate over laissez-faire vs. the managed economy for a moment; do we really know regulations do more good than bad?

Of the 3,500-plus rules enacted each year, what gets audited?

The “Funnel”–the rule-flow trends we can glean from the Office of Management and Budget’s regulatory review program–says “not much.”

Over the past decade, federal regulations with cost estimates have made up less than half a percent of the total annual rule flow of over 3,500.