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Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS One stfep forward, flwo stfeps backward Bv Richard L. Lesher. President Chamber of Commerce of the United States Ever get the feeling that, no matter what you may do, someone from the government will always be waiting to pounce on you and say: "Gotcha!" This seems especially true in the area of regulation, where, under the guise of protecting the public, the government is constantly forcing the public into a position of heads I win, tails you lose. For example: Hospitals in Baltimore were required by city law to keep hot water coming from the taps in patients' rooms at 110 degrees or more; but federal regulations required them to keep the same water at 110 degrees or less. One federal agency ordered hospitals to use liners in waste containers to protect hospital workers from contamination; con-tamination; but another agency prohibited the use of liners, calling them a fire hazard. Operators of a meat-packing plant were told by one federal agency to wash the floor several times for cleanliness; but then they were told by another agency to keep the floors dry so employees em-ployees would not slip and fall. OSHA ordered builders to put beepers on construction vehicles; but then they were fined by EPA for making too much noise. The government ordered children's pajamas treated with flame retar-dant; retar-dant; but then the government decided the same retardant causes cancer. One company invested a small fortune for-tune in an internal exhaust system to keep the air in its factory clean enough to meet OSHA standards but then EPA charged the company s exnauM system was polluting the outside air. Utility companies were told to convert con-vert from coal generation to gas; but then the government told them to convert from gas to coal Utility bills keep going higher. These are merely a few of the ways the federal government has lx-en forcing the private sector to spend more than $100 billion a year to comply with regulations, so many of which are both unnecessary and counterproductive. counter-productive. Yet rumple in Washington still shake their heads in disbelief and wonder, "My heavens, just what is it that is grinding the American economy into the ground, and contributing to the spiraling inflation and unemployment that are steadily eroding the standard of living of every American. We should appoint a task-force to conduct an in-det)th in-det)th study right awav." For a while, many of us looked to President Carter for leadership after he promised in 1978 that one of his Administration's major goals would be to free Amercians from the burden of overregulation. But as we have all learned, Mr. Carter made-many, many promises, and we would have been wise to have heeded the 253-year-old advice from English poet Alexander Pope who said: "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed." disap-pointed." To dramatize this lack of progress, the U.S. Chamber's July regulatory newsletter, Washington Watch, has invented "The Carter Administration Regulatory Game," played on a game board and replete with dice, wheel of fortune, and "Joker Deck." The game has a "Start" square, labeled "Promise Regulatory Reform" but no "Finish" square, and the programmed steps call for more retreats than forward for-ward progress by players For example: kn) -Issue executive , D regulatory reform-'?'1 spaces. ipc Announce 12-15 perc. J?" regulatory budgets-,, fa spaces. lei Claim reduction in ,.ff' requirements advance 4 $ -SBA says paperwork fer business $12.7 billion-;. Ui spaces 5 U Promise to hed record-Pn of White House small J ference advance 3 spaces res w -Reject small bus:n recommendation for lesiglJ , go back 6 spaces. Vj Forget about pron solidate 2.000 federal ii-u , programs into 200 ur.its-L spaces. rt The President's sto:t5 ndc regulatory reform is theU j fe series of Presidential r.im critical national issues. r??ra does adhere tohe patterns- istJ seen in so many of his At:- bio policies a pattern which t; Ira described as, "One Step Fr.j Steps Backward: Heads. J You Lose... Gotcha:" fj |