Those Job Killing Regulations Republicans Hate – One Republican Wants to Bring Back Dwarf Tossing

Wanting So Much for This to be Satire – But Apparently Not

The Republican mantra for 2011 has been that the large amount of regulations in the U. S. are responsible for the economic difficulties.  One Presidential candidate for the GOP has even said he will repeal every federal regulation enacted by Mr. Obama.  (Ok, he’s not a serious Presidential candidate).  But until now no one has ever known exactly which government regulations are killing jobs, and which jobs are being killed.

In Florida the Republicans have taken complete control of the government.  And nothing is stopping them from on their anti-regulatory crusade.

A state legislator has found yet another example of government regulation getting in the way of job creation.

So Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, filed a bill this week to bring back "dwarf tossing," the barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989.

"I'm on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people," Workman said. "This is an example of Big Brother government.

"All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get," Workman said. "In this economy, or any economy, why would we want to prevent people from getting gainful employment?"

Now the initial reaction of The Dismal Political Economist at seeing this story is that this was a clever, sarcastic attempt for Republicans to get their anti-regulations agenda in front of the public.  Admittedly it was not a good attempt at humor, but politicians are notorious for being bad at humor.  North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue joked recently about having Congress take the 2012 election off, and people thought she was serious.  Mitt Romney, a man worth hundreds of millions has joked about being unemployed.

Anyway, the expectation here was that everyone would get a good chuckle and move on.  But no, after perusing the story it appears to be a legitimate crusade.  This does not sound like a joking legislator.

"I would never force anybody to take this form of employment or pay to watch it," Workman said. "I think it's repulsive and stupid. But it's none of the state's business if somebody wants to do this."

It’s just so good to know that Republicans in Florida have indentified this serious encroachment of government authority which is denying the U.S. economic growth.  The story, though gets things right in the end.

Yes, the viral government-kills-jobs theme is being repackaged into what might be called a Leave No Tossed Dwarf Behind bill.

Finally, some humor.