“Our system lacks any meaningful mechanism for tracking the cost of regulations as a whole and balancing that against the need for businesses to use their profits to expand, grow, and thereby create jobs and prosperity. Regulations are a kind of tax.”
“Just as taxes are necessary to raise the revenue government needs, so regulation is necessary to accomplish important goals the market will not accomplish on its own. But economic growth is also important both to individuals and government. Nonetheless, while most government officials recognize that raising taxes has a dampening effect on economic growth, there seems to be no similar acknowledgement with respect to the impact of regulatory costs…”
Testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee – February 16, 2012