We are an Over-Regulated Society …

Deregulating American society is vital if Americans wish to live a life reinforced by liberty and happiness.

Over the past 235 years, too many laws, rules, and regulations have come into our world, whether by well-meaning federal legislators and executives or state and local ones.

Deregulation is not an easy task. You can undo one regulation here and get the unintended consequences of that regulation undone somewhere else.

Principles for responsibly deregulating American society should consider the following:

• Identifying the absolute need for deregulation: We can start by identifying those specific regulations or areas of regulation that are overly burdensome, outdated, or no longer serving their intended purpose. Using historical context and legislative history might involve conducting thorough research and consulting with experts in relevant fields as we proceed.

• Prioritizing economic growth and innovation: Deregulation can stimulate economic growth and encourage innovation by reducing barriers to entry for businesses, fostering competition, and promoting entrepreneurship. If we properly prioritize regulations that hinder these objectives, they can be avoided.

• Focusing on smart regulation: Deregulation is not a bad word.  It doesn't mean getting rid of all regulations indiscriminately. On the contrary, deregulation is about streamlining and improving regulations where necessary by focusing on maintaining necessary protections while eliminating unnecessary red tape.

• Using evidence-based decision-making: Basing deregulatory efforts on sound evidence and analysis is essential to good policy making. We must consider our decisions' potential impacts on various stakeholders, including businesses, consumers, workers, and the environment.

• Ensuring public safety and welfare: For example, we must ensure that public safety, health, and welfare are still adequately protected while reducing regulatory burdens related to these two vital needs in American society today. Specific industries, such as healthcare, food safety, and environmental protection, may require careful regulation to safeguard the public interest, and those safeguards must be reassessed and improved continuously.

• Continuously monitoring, evaluating, and proposing: Implementing mechanisms for continuously monitoring and assessing the impacts of deregulation over time is also essential to reasonable rule making. With periodic proposals on how to improve rules and regulations that come out of continuously monitoring and evaluating our rules, policymakers can better assess whether deregulatory efforts are achieving their intended goals and make adjustments as needed.

• Transparency and accountability: Maintaining transparency throughout the deregulatory process, including public disclosure of proposed changes and opportunities for public input, will instill trust in the process and its intended outcome. Holding regulators accountable for their decisions and ensuring that deregulatory efforts are conducted in the public interest is absolutely in the public interest.

• Engaging stakeholders: We should consult with a diverse range of stakeholders, including industry representatives, consumer advocates, academic experts, and affected communities, throughout each phase of the regulation/de-regulation process. This, too, will help ensure that deregulatory efforts address the needs and concerns of all relevant parties.

• Leaning on past experience lessons learned: By studying past deregulatory efforts, we learn and better understand what worked well and what did not. Learning from both successes and failures informs future deregulatory initiatives and results in much better outcomes for the citizens we serve.

These principles will promote more significant and desirable economic growth, innovation, and the well-being of American society.