What is really killing jobs?

What federal regulations have been enacted in the last three years that have been documented to have killed jobs? 

That was the question I asked a Washington Post reporter yesterday when she called.  She was doing a story on the U.S. Chamber’s complaint about “job-killing” regulations.  In response to my question she said that all she has heard from the U.S. Chamber was speculation of future job losses from anticipated regulations by the EPA such as on boilers.

But as I told her, that’s just fear-mongering about what might happen in the future.  While I have no idea how many small businesses will be impacted by boiler regulations, I do know that regulations are not the top concern of small business.

While the reporter and I also talked about some other issues, such as the very troublesome Regulatory Accountability Act that was recently introduced, I left her with a very clear message for her story.

Regulations are not killing jobs.  Lack of consumer demand is killing jobs.