Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, opened a committee hearing on regulation with the quote above. His committee was conducting a hearing today entitled Federal Regulation: A Review of Legislative Proposals.

Lieberman called the hearing to have fellow senators discuss their own proposals for how to fix a regulatory system that many of them think is the cause of the current economic troubles the country faces. The first panel had Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), Pat Roberts (R-KS), David Vitter (R-LA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Mark Warner (D-VA) present various ideas that would further stifle the regulatory process and make it harder for agencies to fulfill their congressionally mandated responsibilities. Most of these proposals have been part of the basket of items on the agenda of big business associations like the U.S Chamber of Commerce.

Many of the senators continue to use old scripts that cite a figure about the costs of regulations that has been discredited. Although all the senators are likely proponents of the use of cost-benefit analysis, most of them continue to ignore the benefits side of these calculations and the real facts behind regulations: rules in this system, with few exceptions, do not pass muster if the benefits do not substantially outweigh the costs of those regulations.