Republicans’ stimulus ideas often circulate around mitigating or repealing “job-killing regulations.” Democrats respond by saying that Republicans want to pollute rivers, put 6-year-olds to work, and melt the planet.
After Rep. Keith Ellison said something like that on MSNBC last Sunday, I asked him, okay, but don’t the regulations still cost jobs? His answer: No. They actually create jobs. The video (courtesy of Powerline) is above.
His argument (Real Clear Politics has a partial transcript) boils down to this: businesses often have to hire someone to help them comply with the regulation, and that creates jobs.
I tried to ask a followup, but Ellison’s pretty good at filibustering, so I never got to. I was going to point out that the complexity in the tax code created more than 900 jobs at General Electric‘s tax division., the 49% owner of MSNBC (disclosure: where I am a paid contributor). Some of the jobs created by ObamaCare went to the staffers who wrote the bill and are now being paid to help health-care companies navigate it. Same with the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill.
So not only do these regulation-created-jobs add no economic value, they also accelerate the corrupting revolving door.
