Removing regulations for business is like opening the door to the chicken coop and inviting the fox in. If regulations had been paid attention to and enforced, maybe we wouldn't have had to bail out Wall Street. We still don't have effective regulations to prevent business from raping the citizenry. Representative Sensenbrenner has earned his reputation for being a right wingnut and uber conservative.

@WFB Mike...I should have expected a simpleton comment like this from you!

At a minimum, I would have expected that every single regulation now in force, as well as those proposed, would have had its economic impact calculated,updated and reported on an annual basis. 'We the people'.... 'in order to form a more perfect union,' should know what regulations cost.

Are the particulants from "Hundreds of thousands of churches, factories, restaurants, schools and even farms" any less injurious to people's lungs than those from power plants? What's the economic impact of lung cancer and COPD?

Lyle, you idiot, Wall Street was bailed because of idiots like you creating regulations like the Community Reinvestment Act. As a conservative, I abhor the Corporatist companies that snuggle up with legislators to obtain an unfair edge and favors. But, when idiots like you say Wall Street like its full of nothing but capitalists, it shows your narrow minded fascist vision.

By the way, the TARP funds used to bail out what you call Wall Street has been paid back.

Has the gov't been paid back for:

Fannie Mae: no
Freedie Mac: no
General Motors: no
Amtrack: no
Greyhound: no
Post Office: no
War on Poverty: no

Every single organization you liberals absolutely can't do without are nothing but a drain on the American Society.

It is Ironic that every country which exhibits the virtues you lust after are the same ones which the U.S. must continuously bailed out. Countries like East Germany, North Korea, Greece, Mexico, etc etc.

Your virtues are corrupt and don't work.

Interesting that Sensenbrenner wants to hear about this--"Your input will aid me in my legislative decisions and will be used to publicly educate Congress and the American people about the challenges facing U.S. job creators.", but he really doesn't care to hear anything when his taxpaying consitutents don't agree with him.
How about writing to him and explaining which of these "hinderances" like small business loans actually helped. The real job creators in this society are the consumers, they drive the economy. With cuts in their incomes, they will force the changes needed because businesses cannot survive without "customers". Lastly, Congressman Obvious--replacing 19th Century technology like boilers is going to have a negative effect on boilermakers. Duh. The pollution has a negative effect as well. We need to invest in the 21st and 22nd centuries. That is what will make us prosper.

I am a 29 year old who has grown up in the heart of Wisconsin's Republican stronghold West Bend and Cedarburg. I have voted in every major election since I have turned 18 and I have always taken the time to watch debates and read about the candidates stances before deciding on who to ultimately vote for. More often than not I have gone with the Democratic candidate due to my beliefs and values matching up more along the lines of the Democratic candidates. But I have to say that regardless of how I vote, or who I support I hate what Washington and Madison have become. We elect our officials to look out for the best interest of the masses and politics have become so partisan it is frustrating. It disgusts me that no matter where I look and no matter the issue neither side is willing to compromise for the greater good of the people who elected these officials. Why does everything have to become a fight and have to be one way or the other? America became a great nation because we all pulled together and now it seems as though we are all pushing each other apart.

I echo the comments of James smith 100%. I swear allegiance to no political party; try to stay informed and am sick of the lies politicians pander to us. Campaigning they say one thing; once in office decisions are made based upon who the major contributors were to campaigns. Get rid of the lobbyists, the advertising agencies that take facts and construe them never having to face retractions for their misstatements. Have you ever heard of an advertising agency going belly up. They are glad to spend the dollars from corporate contributors.

Promote a product and a person in a positive manner telling us what they have done to deserve our backing. End the lies. Passing more laws to create positions without enforcing the current ones become fodder for attorneys or is it just another way to keep attorneys employed while industry and big business take manufacturing jobs overseas for slave labor. We have come way too far from the founding principles of our nation and allowed politicians to create a debauchery. This segment of the population has the best of benefits, lifetime guarantees, pensions and step on the backs of the constituents to elevate themselves, their cronies and the big money contributors for their personal gratification. What can be done to create more jobs in the USA?

It is simple. Make those who take their business across the ocean accountable; tax their wares coming into the United States ports, bring the jobs back here employing those whose benefits have expired and live from day to day. Make the United States a country that is proud of it's middle class and give those same people the opportunities that our parents, grandparents and great grandparents had to earn a decent day's wage for an honest effort. Put an earned dollar back in their pockets so they can afford to buy the products made here, with pride. Common sense cannot be legislated; more rules just give opportunities to crafty persons to find loopholes. I took a look at the page Representative Sensenbrenner created and find nowhere where a common citizen can leave a comment. Does he really care about you and I?

Doing away with or easing safety, health and well-being rules will harm the local residents and environment. The owners of the businesses don't care about those things. They have no vested interest in them. Their motivation is to make money for themselves at the least possible expense. They do not use nor understand the words "common good".

Shut up, "Tex". You inherited a fortune and never worked a day in your life! Thanks for the Wall Street crisis and befouled Gulf of Mexico!

I need drinking water to live. And I expect that the government will not allow toxic things to reach me or my children. I expect that if they know it is bad for the people, they will not allow it, or they will restrict it, or they will tax it. I invest in my government to have the peoples' best interests in mind and use the leverage they have to protect humans. Not lie about fictitious "jobs" at the cost of the humans they are employed to protect.

Corporations are not people! They are here to make money at everyone's else expence. They can rape the land and the goverment will clean it up. What do we need regulations for? Look what the Fox River would be like if the papermills would not have regulations they would clean them up on their own. May be the we could start the minning up north without regulations look at all the jobs it will create at my expence. Lets be proactive not reactive. Wake up People.

It appears that one person's "must-have regulation" is another person's "too-much-government-control regulation." I believe local, state & federal governments add numerous unneeded (and oft, except by a few, unwanted) regulations. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. "Government" is supposed to be of, by & for the people. Those who want less government regulation (read, "control") must step up & be heard by candidates for office & those already in elected office.

government regulates because the world is way to complicated for the individual or the market to handle everything. an even handed approach, not sensenbrenner's, is to promote needed regulations while eliminating uneeded ones. most regulations came about because some one screwed the public when there was no regulation. regulations ensure the safety of our food,ensure the safety and effectiveness of the medicines we take, keep airplanes from falling out of the sky and so on. can anyone really believe banks got in trouble because to too much regulation or was it because the traded unregulated financial instruments? airlines are now maintaining their aircraft overseas. do we need more inspections of less? we are importing more food? how does sensenbrenner plan to ensure it is safe? his reactionary mantras are bad for us

Anybody want to guess what the "F" in F.James Sensennbrenner stands for?

I agree with James Smith that our State and country are badly polarized. This is unfortunate, as neither side has a monopoly on good ideas - we need to work together in order to have a healthy society.

In times of distress, people look for answers. But the situation is often ambiguous. So, there is a natural tendency for people to latch on to one of the more convenient answers, and wall off any contrary evidence (see Erich Hoffer's book, "The True Believer.") But this quest for simplicity wreaks much havoc on our society, creating out-groups, dogma, and an "all or nothing" mentality.

All this talk of "job creators" is badly misconceived. Speaking for my company and our business partners, if not for business in general, our highest priority as employers is enriching ourselves. That's why we started for-profit businesses in the first place. If our goal was to give other people something to do, we would form non-profits.

I prefer taking on a high workload directly; but if the only way my business could continue meeting customer needs and growing profits was by hiring, then we would create new jobs that pay what the market will bear. "Creating high paying jobs" by sheer power of will is a ridiculous notion - job creation is a side-effect of growth in labor-intensive businesses.

As businesses we do care about the "common good" and have vested interest in the well-being of our communities; but we have to balance the value of our own limited lifespans with what we want to achieve for ourselves and others and decide what regulatory actions we can reasonably afford. Sorry, but there is no easy answer, and as usual the best path is moderate and independent thought on a case-by-case basis.

I think we are all aware that Sensenbrenner is not interestded in our opinionns. Nor are any other politicians. I agree as well with James Smith. I wonder when it happened, when they politicians decided we dont matter. When did they decide they had all the answers. But answers only benefit them and those who have thrown enough $$$$. at them. The question is, how do we change it?

If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? — Frédéric Bastiat, 1850, France

"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?" THOMAS JEFFERSON

Sadly, the two parties are really not much different; they just have different friends they want to support with "our" tax dollars and varying ways of doing so. Most all of them are out of touch with the bulk of the people in the nation and world. They just happen to be in charge of us all and work closely with those who control most of the money flow. They use us to bankroll their ideas and to buy their friends.

It's clear that Sennebrenner is not representing me. We only have him as our Senator because the Republicans redistricted and put him where he is. He represents us the way a defense lawyer represents his "guilty" client. He should be asking his "voters" how the Republican de-regulations have hurt them. Jobs are being sent off shore or to Mexico. Down-sizing is the norm. These practices became rampid during the Bush administration with a majority Republican Congress. Now he is acting as if it is this administrations fault. His memory is very short (or affected by frequent use of alcohol).

I thought that name calling was supposed to be inappropriate for this site. You can make your point without it.

I think some people are confusing being "represented" with having everything their way. I didn't vote for Sensenbrenner, I agree with almost nothing the guy has done or proposes to do, yet he's my Representative and as such he "represents" me in as much as the majority of people who voted in the last election put him in office. I'm not certain where this idea came from that if you can't personally speak to an elected official on your own schedule, in the manner you see fit (or even at all) or if they don't support what you believe in, they don't "represent" you and, as such, because you view your interests as paramount to those of anybody else (i.e., the majority that voted the person you don't feel "represents" you into office), you should get your way and out they must go. Now, I've got an idea where that came from, but it's just a theory....

@Vicki Bennett... I took this comment, that Bob McBride III posted today on a Sandy Pasch Opinion piece, and put in different names. I don't think I could have said it better.

Vicki:

Imagine if you will that there were some sort of 'regulation' that didn't permit companies to send jobs overseas. What would happen to all the companies that have to compete with foreign companies producing similar products, but at much lower labor costs?

Yes, regulations can prevent those jobs from being sent to Mexico or overseas, but if the company goes out of business, those jobs (and more) will still disappear.

If individuals are unable to govern themselves, then how can we expect those same people to govern others? Nobody on this forum ever attempts to answer that very basic question.

As a Business owner, That is now down 4 employees and down to 15% of our 2008 Gross. We wont hire until Obama and the Democrats are gone. Small businesses needed to Consolidate their debt in Jan. 2009. But Obama strong armed the banks and they froze up any lending to small businesses. He tried to control all the small banks, So they gave the money back. Then He took all the Stimulous money and gave it to the public unions and his "favorite" business friends. So there you have it. Get rid of them and we will hire 1.5 million in the 1st week.

Business owners will survive on their own. We're a special breed. We love to give Others Prosperity. but for now We'll only Use our kids or relatives for help. None of us get unemployment. None of us got any stimulous checks. None of us got a debt Consolidation. We were thrown to the dogs. and then demonized and spit on by Obama and the dems on top of that. So, get rid of the democrats and their crime spree and we'll hire immediately. I will hire back 3 workers Immediately. It's the "Workers" move. Get them out now, Please.

This country was founded on the belief in the power of individual freedom, NOT in the power of elite government to dictate.

Creating a population of entitled dependents does not allow people to become self reliant, but instead lowers our country to the standard of living and depravity as the rest of the world.

Vicci, You are obviously not a Business owner. Every Business owner I deal with Had awesome years During the Bush administration. In 03 through 06, we had record years. in 07 and 08 our Gross income started to decline. but only by around 10%. FYI, the Democrats controlled the Congress in 07 and 08. In 2009, Our business laid off all workers and our Gross went down 75%. This year 2011, we'll be lucky to get 15% of the work we got during Bush. Democrats, their Spending and Regulations have Destroyed the small Business. Once again, Get the Dems out and We'll hire 1.5 million in the first week.

You'll hire 1.5 million in the first week that the Dems are out? You must be one big business owner...

Although I'm not a business owner, it is clear to this "novice" that the Bush years were like a paper tiger that was not built on a lasting foundation. Thus, we had the crash of our financial institutions and various other foundations of our economy due to deregulation. This didn't just happen when Obama took over, it was "happening" when he took office. That is why some of his first acts were the bail outs. It's interesting how some people like to distort events. My comments were meant to address the fact that I don't feel represented by Sensebrenner. I've been to events where he spoke and found that he was not responsive nor interested in questions that didn't support his bottom line or his special interest groups. There's no way you can defend that.

Isn't that how most every politician is? If you agree with their position, they are responsive and interested. If you disagree, they are unresponsive and uninterested...

Jay Sykes, is Sensebrenner even you representative?? Are you from the North Shore of Milwaukee??

@Vicki Bennett... Yes, I am a N/S resident. I lived here when Sensenbrenner was first elected as a US Representative, before Tom Barrett represented the N/S; were were part of the 9th Congressional District. Other than my matriculating years, spent collecting various calligraphy on sheepskin, I've lived in the N/S.

Vicci, The Crash of our Financial institutions, Happened because of Frank and Dodd in 07 and 08. They made sure , That even if someone Didn't have a job or SS # They were Qualifyed to buy a house or that bank would be fined by Regulations, in the Affordable housing act scam. . And Sued by Their Acorn Laywer, Obama.There was so much money laundering , Even Bairnes stole 90 million from fannie mae. In Bushes last two months, He saw the damage done by the Affordable housing act scam and he tried to save these large banks . He signed over a 420 billion $ check to Obama. Which ended up being just a down payment to the Democrat looting that followed. Get the Dems out and we will hire again....

@Jeff Lawson...You continually cite 18th and 19th century sources to support your positions. It is unbelievable how you take things out of context. Concerning TARP and the bailouts, it is consistent with Keynesian Economics. But the problems the nation and state have are experienced can be traced directly to a hodgepodge of regulations and inconsistent enforcement. The regulatory debacle is a direct result of both political parties. Even Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations cautioned that business needed to be regulated and bear the social costs that capitalism caused. Your insistence on it's the liberals fault is not only misdirecting but represents an out and out falsehood.

I think this age old conservative cry that "regulation" hurts the economic development. When in truth the only economies that are hurt by regulations are the legislators themselves who benefit from contributions from these huge lobbyist groups. While it is important to not have our systems bogged down to a halt by over-regulation, it is important to keep in mind many of the disasters that we've had to endure when we let industries from manufacturing to financial "police" themselves. Many regulations are in place to protect the ordinary citizen from risk both bodily and otherwise. We are in this economic mess right now due to eased regulations on Wall Street. Washington turned its back while Wall Street played monopoly with our economy and preyed on the life savings of our citizens. Then when the bubble burst tax payers bailed them out. When Wall Street recovered, they then relied on sycophants like Jim Sensenbrenner to blare the trumpets of eased regulations to get the wheel turning again.

@Sammy- I'm still trying to figure out how Dems and their spending killed small business? You don't think there are small business owners that are Democrats? Are these business owners (myself being one of them) don't have clue? Maybe I understand that if MORE people have jobs and access to wealth, that MORE people will have the means to spend money with my small business? Interesting lesson in economics. I agree Jim S doesn't relate to me at all. I've attended events where he was and felt as if he wasn't speaking to me at all. It seems if you're a conservative you're willing to destroy our way of life to benefit yourself and your ideals

How about "no bid" contracts to companies like Haliburton? I'm sure those contracts outweigh anything set aside to minority businesses. In many cases those set asides are simply a way to make sure that minority businesses get aNY jobs and those set asides are slight.

@Bob McBride II...You make it hard to argue with. You are so right about the regulations creating opportunities for abuse. I too have had the experience of working for companies that set up minority owned fronts including naming women as presidents to gain the coveted minority owned status. Businesses, from large to small, have used this scam for decades. True minority owned businesses have difficulty in participating because of capitalization problems. Therefore they end up partnering with larger firms to be able to take on the contracts, but pay huge fees to do so. Regulation reforms should find ways to close these loopholes.

Regulations have to be looked at on a case by case basis and how they actually protect the public and also balanced against how it will harm business. And some of these regulations/proposed regulations are based on junk science. You need not look any further than carbon credits to see the lunacy of some of these regulations/proposed regulations. Or look at Europe's RoHS. Many of the regulated substances that aren't allowed in electronics under RoHS a) cannot be measured accurately and b) there is no definitive proof they are harmful. And now we have the removal of lead from solder in electronics. That sounds good, right? Lead is harmful to the human body. Now the bad news: the lead free solder that replaced the leaded solder has the nasty tendency to migrate over time, basically shorting out components on circuit boards. Your nice new LCD TV in the family room, think it will last 10 yrs? After all I have a 20 yr old TV in the basement, this new one should be at least as reliable, right? Nope....that lead free solder will eventually migrate and fry something in that new TV of yours. Yay, planned obsolescence delivered by your government regulators. Wonder why electronics where human life is on the line(space, military) is exempt from the ban on lead solder? There you go. Anyone for lead free solder in their antilock brake controls? How about your air bag controls?