No Certainty, No Recovery

John Stossel fact checks some recent remarks on the budget by President Obama and, along the way, captures some of the uncertainty businessmen are facing during our economic "recovery":

This post-recession economic recovery is the slowest ever. Usually, after a recession, the cost of labor drops, and companies rush to hire so they can profit as the economy improves.

This time, employers looked at a thousand new regulations, unknowable new rules and taxes coming from Obamacare, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Labor Department and so on. They decided: "I better not try."

May I hire interns to see if I like them before offering them long-term jobs? No. It may not be legal to employ interns anymore.

May I build a pipeline? Maybe. But the Environmental Protection Agency must approve. And state utilities. And state environmental officials. And the State Department. And the White House. And ... who knows whom else?

Already-existing taxes and regulations are bad enough, but at least they are known quantities. The uncertainty that comes with the prospect of new taxes and regulations -- and with having to justify one's decisions to the satisfaction of some third party -- makes long-range planning nearly impossible.

-- CAV