Even as Obama's in full campaign mode, things are just unraveling all around him. His administration's new EPA rules will cost - at minimum - 800,000 jobs and likely far more than that.
You weren't supposed to find that out so soon.
His guy in charge wants yet another "stimulus" with money that we don't have.
His Energy Department says its new efficiency standards for the 26 household products, including microwave ovens, incandescent reflector lamps, washing machines and dryers, will save consumers between $250 billion and $300 billion on their energy bills through 2030.
But Ben Lieberman, an environmental expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says based on history, the regulations "will raise the purchase price of appliances – in some cases more than is ever likely to be earned back in the form of energy savings."
"Worse, several may adversely impact product performance and reliability," he wrote in a blog this week. "There are potentially problematic regulations on the way for virtually every room in the house."
McDonald's has already started playing hardball over the "health care plan", prompting the BO administration to say that its top health official will "exercise her discretion" in enforcing a new health-law requirement. So we have an expansive - and expensive - new law that was never read before being pushed through. And it will be enacted with discretion.
Adding insult to injury, Principal Group has announced that they're exiting the health-care business, kicking a minimum of 1500 more jobs to the curb.
This wasn't supposed to happen - not yet. That'd be expected in four years, sure - but not right now. You're going to get to keep your own health plan, keep your own doctor, yadda-yadda. The D.C. brain trust never figured on the idea that private enterprise might see the writing on the wall and move to cut their losses sooner, rather than later.
You weren't supposed to find out about the effects of EPA regulations until after 2012, either. Man, this really sucks if you're a Democrat.