Real News:' Obama Administration Enforces Regulation Held Back for Election

As President Obama approached re-election, critics suggest that the administration quietly tabled a number of regulations out of fear of giving the GOP something to point to in order to help paint Obama as a job killer. Now, in perhaps similar under-the-radar fashion, those previously tabled regulations are being rolled out.  The Associated Press reports:

For months, federal agencies and the White House have sidetracked dozens of major regulations that cover everything from power plant pollution to workplace safety to a crackdown on Wall Street.

The rules had been largely put on hold during the presidential campaign as the White House sought to quiet Republican charges that President Barack Obama was an overzealous regulator who is killing U.S. jobs.

But since the election, the Obama administration has quietly reopened the regulations pipeline.

In recent weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules to update water quality guidelines for beaches and deal with runoff from logging roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, meanwhile, has proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto makers to include event data recorders - better known as "black boxes" - in all new cars and light trucks beginning in 2014.

The administration also has initiated several rules to implement its health care overhaul, including a new fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions.

Conservatives argue that the net effect of the regulation bomb is likely to be a higher cost of doing business, costs which are likely to be passed on to consumers and suppliers, making worse a painfully slow to recover economy. Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks has been watching this issue closely, and joined 'Real News' Thursday to discuss: