{"text":[[{"start":5.66,"text":"The correct attitude towards regulatory agencies in a democracy mirrors the correct attitude towards the military: acknowledge their absolute necessity; respect the people who do the work; but for goodness’ sake don’t let them run the place and keep an eye firmly on the price tag."}],[{"start":21.96,"text":"For most Americans, salient interactions with the government are limited to their regular visits to the voting booth and entanglements with the regulatory apparatus. The latter happens to most of us every year. In the Armstrong household, April 15 — tax day — is an annual day of rage, not because we resent paying our share but because the way we must pay is so complicated that we must pass a significant sum to an accountant to oversee the process (and I am a numerate person with a simple financial life)."}],[{"start":52.82,"text":"One does not have to be a libertarian nut job to acknowledge the costs imposed by the US administrative state. The complaints are familiar and shiny with age. But they have renewed relevance after the epic political shift that has just occurred. If the Democrats’ winning slogan — “affordability” — was easy to run on, it will be desperately hard to deliver in government. Further tax cuts or handouts will be limited by the yawning deficit and a restive bond market; price controls will fail because they always do. But the Democrats can make American lives cheaper and easier by lowering the costs, in time and money, of regulation. And they can do it while staying true to the values they ran on."}],[{"start":92.9,"text":"They should start by learning from the Donald Trump administration’s successes and failures. The broken promises and mindless execution of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency will not be forgotten soon. Doge made the federal workforce (which has been stable for more than half a century) smaller but without any noticeable impact on the federal budget, while doing a lot of collateral damage. The other big moments are more ambiguous: the rollback of some bank regulations and blocking the Joe Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandates. Responses to those two may depend on party affiliation."}],[{"start":127.5,"text":"But the Trump administration did useful deregulatory work with bipartisan appeal. A few examples: its 2017 FDA Drug Competition Action Plan improved the affordability of generic drugs. It has pushed hard to move health plan paperwork online by default. The executive order requiring “two for one” regulatory budgeting (two rules removed for every new one added, plus cost neutrality) has well-known flaws, but does seem to have limited regulatory creep. And its refusal to rush into AI regulation, despite popular distrust of the technology, has been salutary."}],[{"start":164.58,"text":"The next Congress, and the next president, can do more. And to get one partisan canard out of the way, effective deregulatory action is not territory owned by the Republican Party. The most effective presidential deregulator ever was arguably Jimmy Carter, whose reforms of the airline, rail, trucking, energy and communications industries were pro-competitive, pro-consumer and pro-growth. It is also worth noting in this context that between 1992 and 1998 the federal workforce declined by 12 per cent under Bill Clinton’s National Performance Review and the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994 — as much as Doge, without the acrimony and disruption. This is solidly bipartisan territory."}],[{"start":209.38,"text":"Where to begin, then? An easy target: all but the tiniest employers must file their Social Security and Medicare taxes four times a year on IRS Form 941. Make it annual for small businesses. Easier still: help the Senate pass the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, which lightens the permitting burden on energy and infrastructure projects, in its current form."}],[{"start":232.86,"text":"Beyond specific deregulatory targets, the process for amending regulations needs changing. We should take up a proposal advocated by the economist Michael Greenstone for regular retrospective analysis of existing regulations. That would make trimming federal rules a normal form of governmental hygiene, one that could be performed under the auspices of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office."}],[{"start":256.06,"text":"President Trump’s ascent was powered by voters angry with the political establishment; his descent is being driven by many of the same voters, now disillusioned by his inability to make the government work for them. The next generation of leaders will want to avoid repeating this circular process. Deregulation often involves politically fraught, time-consuming work that results in multiple small wins rather than revolutionary changes. But a concerted effort can bring voters benefits they really feel. It’s a place to start."}],[{"start":289,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794474102_5711.mp3"}