We are gathered here today to mark the death of a great conservative trope: government regulation stifles innovation. This once mighty mantra has been chanted by every expert and across every medium, working it's way so far into the collective psyche that even Barack Obama began his defense of new consumer protections by paying homage.
To reduce barriers to growth and investment, I've ordered a review of Government regulations...
For those who didn't take it on faith, there was simple math: more government equals less freedom. That may be fine when it comes to say speeding in residential zones, or legitimate scientific efforts to better understand traffic dynamics, but lord help us if liberal politicians keep jamming up the flow of job creation with their politically motivated and burdensome regulations. Hell, Obamacare alone cost 2.5 million jobs, just ask the CBO.
Or so went the "logic" until Kaiser Health News reported the findings of a recent Georgetown University study. It turns out that 1.5 million of those workers, newly unchained from their burdensome jobs by the guarantee of access to quality affordable health coverage via Obamacare, are projected to become self employed or start their own business. What's that you say? Innovation and job creation born from government regulation? Inconceivable!
It's true that innovation needs freedom to flourish, but government is not the only source of oppression, nor in America the greatest. In the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act government fulfills, in some imperfect measure, what should be it's primary purpose: freeing people from unjust perils to pursue their dreams.