President Barack Obama announced in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Tuesday that he will issue an executive order mandating an examination of rules “to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says Obama is merely adopting an idea proposed by Republicans,
Politico reports.
In December 2009, Cantor, then the House minority whip, gave Obama a copy of a Republican jobs plan at a White House meeting.
One of the planks was to “Halt Any Proposed Rule or Regulation Expected to Have an Economic Cost, Result in Job Loss, or Have a Disparate Impact on Small Businesses.”
In a statement issued Tuesday, Cantor says, "Interestingly, though he and his administration didn’t embrace it last year, we have noticed pieces of the plan being incorporated by the president including trade agreements and rolling back barriers to job creation found in the regulatory system."