Obama Cuts Through Red Tape

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, President Obama has repeatedly said that he wants his administration to cut through the “red tape” and inefficiency of government regulations and rules in an effort to more efficiently bring relief to the devastated Northeast.

“We are here for you,” Obama said in Brigantine, N.J. “We are not going to tolerate red tape. We are not going to tolerate bureaucracy.” 

Does anyone else find this kind of funny that Obama is repudiating government regulations? Let me see if I can figure this out.

We have a government, with rules and regulations in place. Ok, check. Now we have natural disasters, which occur from time to time. We don’t always know exactly when a natural disaster will occur, but we know that eventually, we will have one. Apparently, these rules and regulations don’t allow for efficient disaster relief, so the President has simply told his administration: Hey y'all, just ignore the rules. The normal course of government is too damn inefficient. Just deregulate as you go on an ad-hoc basis to get things done.

This strikes me as really funny when it comes from a President who is committed to enlarging the Federal Government and increasing regulation. If we’re just going to suspend the rules and regulations when it suits us (and apparently the President can just ignore these regulations when it suits him) why not just get rid of these inefficient rules entirely? It’s almost like the government is the problem, and getting it out of the way is the answer.