Voters to Government: Back Off! : The intrusion of regulations into private life and business is what really disgusts Americans.
Americans are very angry at government. That is a truism this election year. Democrats, and sympathetic pundits, would like to think that the public is mad at gridlock. Congress is, in their minds, a factory whose productivity is measured by how many laws it passes. The last Congress was “unproductive,” and so, they assure us, the public is angry.
Republicans, for their part, want to believe that the public is mad at Bill Clinton and Democrats in Congress. In their “contract,” the Republicans emphasize attacking politicians through term limits and cuts in congressional staffs. And, as always, they promise to cut taxes, reminding the public that Clinton raised them.
Both analyses miss the point. Yes, the public despises politicians who snipe at each other on C-Span, then vote themselves pay hikes. And yes, a lot of people think Bill Clinton is a smarmy liar who raised their taxes. But the analysts, absorbed in the culture of Washington, miss the personal side of politics. Americans are sick and tired of being bossed around.
Since 1987, according to Times Mirror survey data, the number of people who say that the federal government controls too much of our daily lives has jumped from 58% to 69%. And the number who say that business regulations usually do more harm than good has jumped from 55% to 63%.
Resentment is building, particularly among the entrepreneurs on whom future prosperity depends. In its 1994 survey of the 500 fastest-growing private companies, Inc. magazine reports that “regulation was most often identified as the No. 1 enemy. . . . Jittery about health-care reform, feeling bound and nearly gagged by red tape, these entrepreneurs bemoaned the burdens of complying with local, state and federal mandates that often conflict with one another and that always cost money.”
Inc.’s report is gentle compared to the study by the New Economy Project of Los Angeles County. In this survey of local businesses, mainly privately held companies, respondents listed regulation as their number one problem: “Many firms simply wrote in capital letters, ‘GOVERNMENT HARASSMENT!’ . . . or ‘REGULATIONS!!!’ . . . In interviews, company executives were frequently so angry about their relations with the government that they would vent their frustration on the project staff for several minutes before apologizing and more calmly responding to questions.”
I can sympathize. As a homeowner, I saw the city delay a simple bathroom remodeling job by weeks--disrupting my work, my husband’s work and the work of two contractors. As a manager at a cash-strapped nonprofit, I saw a $1,100 project to divide two offices balloon by $5,000 thanks to a requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act: A new fire-alarm system was needed so that if there is a fire (unlikely) and if we have a deaf employee or visitor (unlikely) and if there is no hearing person to alert the deaf person (extremely unlikely), blinking lights will flash a warning. In other words, we were forced to spend $5,000 on a symbol.
Rampant regulation is no longer the problem of General Motors. It has invaded family businesses and family homes. And it’s infuriating to have government snatch control of your time, money and decision-making power.
“When I started this business 15 years ago, I spent 95% of my time out front with customers,” says Michigan restaurateur David Gillie. “Now I spend 95% of my time in back doing paperwork” to fend off regulators. Every day, throughout America, millions of David Gillies grow a little angrier at the government enforcers who are constantly inventing new ways to order them around.
The property-rights movement, with its attacks on environmental regulations that victimize land owners, is the first expression of the grass-roots regulation revolt. The outcry from religious business owners against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s proposed “religious harassment” guidelines, which led Congress to force the EEOC to back off, was a second sign. Another was the popular revulsion at the Clinton health-care plan.
So far, however, no one in Washington has identified the pattern. No one has declared that regulation is a tax burden that never gets lightened, which Republicans and Democrats alike add to with impunity. No one has figured out that angry voters want a lot more than a contract, an end to “gridlock” or even more tax cuts. They want their lives back.
