For the last couple of years, one of my favorite daily features has been at HotAir.com.  It is a daily posting by Ed Morrisey called Obamateurism of the day.  Yesterday’s example proves my point about government regulation almost perfectly.  For a while now, the Tea Party/Socialist debate has been reported as being about taxes.  I must tell you that I believe this to be a secondary problem for our economy.  While important, and far too complicated, It is the over zealous culture of regulation that is taking the lead position on the destruction of our economy and culture.  You can read the Morrisey piece by clicking here.  If you don’t wish to, I’ll summarize it for you.  During his Midwest tax payer funded family preparation for vacation campaign bus tour, President Obama spoke to some farmers in Southern Illinois.  A concerned farmer, frustrated with the government’s full out assault upon his business asked about the latest asinine regulation rumored to be coming down the pike.  The rumor was that farmers, will be required to attain CDL’s to operate their farming machinery.  The President’s response was recorded in the following video.

Special note for the Blogmocracy gang. I am not savvy enough to embed any videos outside of youtube videos. Follow the link, it works.

Please click here to see the video.

After listening to the answer, a reporter for Politico, which by the way is as left leaning an organization as there is, took the President’s advice and called the appropriate authorities.  That one phone call led to a two day journey through the very depths of bureaucracy land.  Bounced from one governmental agency to another on both the Federal and State levels led to a sense of frustration for a reporter who had no actual skin in the game, and yielded not a single definitive answer.  Just imagine the frustration level for someone who’s livelihood depended on the answer.

We have indeed reached a surreal point in America my friends.  The good news for the farmer, and those of us wishing to buy groceries at an affordable price, is that with a bevy of regulation so thick that our overlords are no longer capable keeping up with all of them, he may very well be able to operate his machinery for at least a little while before someone in the government realizes that he is indeed in violation of rule 12.1647/sj75.prc12.578/jx/b.  On the other hand, the fine may be the amputation of his right arm and confiscation of half his land.  Candidate Obama campaigned on a platform of being a pragmatist, and depending on what crowd he was speaking to at the time, even managed to sound as though he were well to the right of John McCain.  As President, he has promised to put an end to cumbersome regulations, which he admitted to having the knowledge were choking our economy.  During his last State of The Union Address, he pledged to roll back over burdensome regulations, and pledged to not increase upon them.  Since that time, he and his executive branch team have starred in the upcoming video, regulators gone wild.  Putting aside for the moment the surreal optics of 9 year old children across the country being busted in a series of lemonade stand stings, (a great example by the way of teaching children the values of self reliance and hard work,)  we now live in a society where over half of us need some form of government permission to work, and where  hair dressers require more class time than medical doctors.  These regulations are doing much more damage to our economy than the tax code, and as the above video shows, it is affecting every industry.  It is far too easy to point to the chosen corporations selected for purely demagogic reasons as deserving of punishment for having provided too much benefit to their fellow citizens.  When it is your industry or job however, it stings just a little more.  In the end, we all pay for it.

Just one more thought.  Late last week, the Holder Justice Department raided Gibson Guitars for using rosewood on their fretboards.  The reason for the raid was not given, as Gibson actually was not in violation of any U.S. laws, that anyone was able to determine.  This was the 3rd time in 2 years Gibson has been raided for the rosewood.  Since Michelle Obama gave a Gibson Guitar as a Present to the wife of the French President, she is also guilty of felonious behavior should Gibson be guilty of anything.  Teams of legal analysts should be done researching whether or not Gibson is guilty of violating any government regulations by the time the Obama’s leave Washington permanently, in January of 2013.

Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.