Obama orders review to cut red tape
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U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order to review federal regulations aimed at boosting economic growth and job creation, the White House said Tuesday.
The new order outlined the president's regulatory strategy "to support continued economic growth and job creation, while protecting the safety, health and rights of all Americans," according to a White House statement.
In an opinion column Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Obama said he wanted his administration to strike a balance between protecting the public and promoting economic growth.
This move is considered another step by the president to mend his relationship with the business community.
The Obama administration promoted several key laws in the past two years, including the health care act and financial regulatory overhaul.
Those regulations were criticized as creating uncertainty in the economy and placing "unreasonable burdens on business -- burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs."
Obama said in the article that regulatory agencies needed to look for outdated regulations that made the U.S. economy less competitive.
"It's a review that will help bring order to regulations that have become a patchwork of overlapping rules, the result of tinkering by administrations and legislators of both parties and the influence of special interests in Washington over decades," Obama wrote.
The president also called for more transparency in regulatory compliance that could "strengthen our country without unduly interfering with the pursuit of progress and the growth of our economy."
