As somebody who doesn’t support President Obama’s policies, I am nevertheless finding the collapse of his presidency frightening. John Ellis, one of my favorite commentators, has an excellent, if chilling, piece on this collapse. Ellis portrays the president as a man who is not about to switch gears and try something new.


President Obama, for example, has always felt that business needs to be more regulated. And we’ll likely be seeing a lot more regulation when the president announces his jobs plan after Labor Day. According to rhe Hudson Institute’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the president’s plan will be so chock-a-block with new regulations that it will further repress the job market:     



The White House announced that President Obama will deliver a major address on job creation early in September. Mr. Obama could address proposed Labor Department regulations that would hobble employers with paperwork, reducing hiring.



These regulations include affirmative action rules for minorities and women at on-site construction jobs for federally-funded projects; requirements for federal contractors to keep records of the race, sex, and earnings of employees; rules governing dust levels in coal mines; and rules to expand preferences for veterans in the workplace.


Furchtgott-Roth focuses on one new rule from the Labor Department. It’s to prevent discrimination against military veterans, which is surely not as big a problem as the proliferation of byzantine regulations. Here are just two of the many regulations encompassed in this single rule:



Contractors would have to maintain annual records of referrals of all job candidates, referrals of veterans, and the ratio of veteran referrals to all referrals. This would be substantial paperwork burden. If employers did not get enough veteran referrals, they could get dropped as federal contractors.



Employers would have to conduct mandatory all-employee and management meetings to discuss their affirmative action policies and make sure everyone understands them. Currently, such notices must be posted on employee bulletin boards in full view, often in cafeterias or outside human resources offices.


With employment programs like this in the offing, it’s no wonder that people are feeling sour-only 11 percent now believe that economically the country is headed in the right direction. By any definition, this is the sign of a rapidly collapsing presidency and a rudderless country.