In the January 2025 issue of Reasonwe take stock of the performance of Joe Biden’s presidency. Click here to read other entries.

On domestic regulatory issues, Biden has demonstrated initiative and a willingness to go above and beyond what is asked. It’s a shame that this is the opposite of what a good presidential performance entails. The ideal candidate here is someone unwilling or unmotivated to find new outlets for regulation, but the Biden administration has proven far too eager to expand the reach of the regulatory state.

Take Biden’s obsession with “junk fees,” by which he basically means anything a company charges for perks (like checking bags during a flight) or penalties (like bank overdraft fees). Such fees may serve important and legitimate purposes, but Biden has cast them all as mere points of corporate “greed.” Because it can’t eliminate them directly, the administration decided they must be disclosed in a special way, saving Americans from having to find out, for example, about cable costs. in two separate lines instead of one.

It’s silly, of course, but it illustrates the administration’s belief that virtually any area of ​​business is a fair target for federal regulators. And Biden’s business micromanagement extends well beyond fee disclosure.

Following Biden ordersthe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) outlaw non-competition clauses (a rule that a federal judge has already rejected the FTC exceeding its authority) and adopted a proposal for a “deeper merger control policy”.

The Labor Department has proposed a rule that would make it harder to work as independent contractors and another that would significantly expand the number of workers eligible for overtime pay.

Biden has also attempted to use executive and regulatory actions to override state policies and private property rights. For example, he ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to declare that a federal Medicaid rule requires hospitals to perform emergency abortions, even in states where they are banned. He also wants make things easier for the federal government to seize pharmaceutical patents when politicians believe prices are too high.

Biden says such measures aim, among other things, to promote competition and protect reproductive freedom. But even if those are the end results—and it’s often quite debatable—they accomplish these things by substituting the judgment of the federal government for that of employers, employees, consumers, state legislators, and everyone else.

Regulatory performance review: excessive micromanagement

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