While the Ferguson, Missouri riots take center stage in the news, other events are occurring too, and important ones.  For one thing, Thanksgiving is nearly here and Christians everywhere in America should take time to give thanks to God for who He is and for the abundant grace He has granted to each of us and to this nation.  In addition, we are waiting on the issuance of about 3, 400 new regulations to descend upon us, care of the Federal government.  That’s right, about 3,400 new rules and regulations addressing, well, pretty much everything.  That should be big news, but isn’t widely reported.  Let me provide a few examples.

The new rules on emissions from coal-fired power plants are coming.  Of course anyone with any common sense, let alone economic sense, knows that the stricter the regulations, the costlier coal becomes, and the more expensive power becomes.  In some cases, the plants will not even be able to meet the standards at any price and will simply stop operating—remember, this was President Obama’s expressed desire a few years ago.  You could almost call this regulation a tax, though it isn’t formally one.

The EPA is going to attempt to regulate nearly every body of water in the United States by claiming the Clean Water Act gives it such broad jurisdiction.  I wonder whether my neighbors will be able to fill their swimming pool next year?  If they try without a permit from the EPA, will they be fined thousands of dollars?  Let’s welcome the all-pervasive state.

Of course we also can look forward to some new parts of the Affordable Care Act kicking in.  This, as Jonathan Gruber so elegantly put it, is for us stupid masses—and we will like it or else, because “experts” like him have said we will.

The costs of these and the other new rules are really incalculable, since we cannot measure all possible costs (or benefits) in the long run, given our limited knowledge.  But one thing for certain I believe, we will “feel” these costs and will be worse-off for them.  And to what end? That’s the “$64 million dollar” question (inflation you know).  The EPA regulations are supposed to reduce global climate change (the new term now that warming hasn’t materialized).  But the research is indicating more and more that there is no “climate change” that is man-made, even though the climate has changed in the past during certain periods (for example, the “Little Ice Age” in Europe).  So the rules are imposing new, potentially high, costs on us with no measurable benefit, a fact even the Federal government has acknowledged in its models which do include global climate change.

As for regulating bodies of water, it seems the EPA may not actually have the legal authority to do so, but until it faces a legal challenge, it will plow ahead.  But what will the rules get us?  A lot more red tape and larger bureaucracy with no appreciable benefit.  Did the EPA forget that most private bodies of water are well-managed because they are private?  Actually, the EPA knew that, but they didn’t let a minor fact get in their behemoth path.

The ACA (Obamacare) rules will mainly make it more difficult to find a doctor, to keep a doctor, to get insurance, and to afford what you do find.  Add to that new taxes and we have a perfect example of bad legislation combined with even worse implementation by a massive bureaucratic mechanism.

I don’t mean to make anyone unhappy.  We still have much to be thankful for and all these problems in the end are transient.  But we do have to live here in the meantime, and our children and their children and so on also will be here after we are gone.  If we care, we will be engaged at least insofar as to be informed and vote intelligently.  In the meantime, for a regulation near you, I suggest visting—oh, you don’t need to leave the comfort of your home.  I am sure you and I have already violated some rule by just being alive.