Has government regulation slowed the recovery?
Has over-regulation held back the nation鈥檚 economic recovery? It鈥檚 a claim that politicians -- particularly pro-business conservatives -- periodically make, most recently Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., during a March 10, 2013, appearance on ABC鈥檚 This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Johnson鈥檚 comments on This Week were partly obscured in the cross-talk with other panelists, so we decided not to put his statement on the Truth-O-Meter. (His spokesperson said he was talking about regulations as well as taxes and penalties, but that isn鈥檛 verfiable from the footage.) Still, we wondered whether his claim that regulation played a role was well-supported, so we checked with a range of economists.