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What specific government regulations are businesses concerned about?
The media claims that the business community feels hindered by government regulation. Which specific regulations are businesses most concerned about?
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3 Answers
Here are just a few - of many - examples:
Health care regulation (a/k/a 'Obamacare') - although this legislation was 'sold' as being good for business, here in MA (where we already have many aspects of this law, most of which doesn't go into effect nationally until 2014) our employer health care costs are among the highest in the nation - and increasing rapidly.
Sarbanes-Oxley - represents a significant burden on and barrier to growing companies going public.
Environmental/EPA - affects energy, utilities, manufacturing
Dodd/Frank - financial services
This is not to say all regulations are bad - but there is no doubt that they impose a burden on businesses - and are holding back both economic and job growth.
The healthcare issue, as mentioned by Chris, is certainly a huge unknown at this point and no one knows if there will be any resolutions before the next presidential election and maybe not then. He also mentioned some of the other burdensome regulations that impact businesses. In many cases, larger companies have had to hire experts in each regulatory area to try to remain compliant. I don't think this is the kind of "job creation" the country needs.
Then there is the insanity of the 1099 forms for every vendor to whom one pays $600 or more in a year.
Along with the EPA regulations is the question of carbon credits and how they apply to a given company if they apply at all.
One regulation that most companies comply with willingly is to keep a job open or have an equivalent one available for a reservist who has been called to active duty. Even though it may prove a burden for a small company or a larger one if the position is a critical one, they feel it is a small price to pay for our freedom. It becomes extremely burdensome, however, when the same reservists are constantly redeployed for the second, third or fourth time. It can make it difficult for some businesses to remain at the same level of production let alone have the ability to grow.
In the finance industry, Dodd Frank is a big, burdensome, unknown. The text of the statute is more than 1000 pages, and by one law firm's count, it requires that regulators create 243 rules, conduct 67 studies, and issue 22 periodic reports. Each rule will be complicated in its own right, and as yet, none of the rules have even been finalized yet. So banks are trying to get prepared, but it's still unclear what they'll need to do to comply.
Many of the rules associated with Dodd Frank are long overdue, and most people in the financial industry agree that the financial markets needed reform, but it's still unknown how much these changes will cost the industry.
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