House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called the White House release Tuesday of hundreds of regulatory reforms “underwhelming,” as Republicans continued to criticize the president for doing “too little too late” to cut spending and help boost the economy.
The Virginia Republican said President Barack Obama’s long-awaited announcement of some 500 reforms following months of review isn’t broad enough and doesn’t contain the kinds of tax breaks needed to help businesses survive and grow in a down economy.
“The results are underwhelming,” Cantor said. “Every day, business people and job creators cope with burdensome regulations that have a negative impact on both jobs and our economy, and again the President seems reluctant to do everything in his power to help them.”
But writing in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal, Cass Sunstein, who runs the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said the reforms would cut across nearly every department and agency of government.
He stressed that the changes would simplify the government’s regulatory system by cutting costs and eliminating redundancy and inconsistency.
“Over the next five years, the monetized savings from just a fraction of the reforms announced today are likely to exceed $10 billion,” Sunstein said.
Cantor, however, said the GOP-controlled House will pursue a legislative agenda after Labor Day that will include the repeal of some business taxes and require congressional approval of reforms to ensure regulations do not have an adverse impact on consumers and small businesses.
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