The L.A. Times had a nice preview on this today, but the Center for Progressive Reform has just come out with a comprehensive report casting doubt on the regulatory record of Cass Sunstein, the president’s pick to head the office in charge of government regulatory efforts.
According to the CPR, Sunstein, a longtime friend of Obama’s, has supported the use of “cost-benefit analysis” in evaluating proposed regulations — a method that assigns monetary values to various risks in an attempt to determine the worthiness of a new rule.
To an extent, that position aligns Sunstein with John Graham, the corporate-funded, right-leaning head of George W. Bush’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Graham became notorious for assigning a greater hypothetical value to the lives of younger Americans than to those of senior citizens, a practice dubbed the “death discount.”
It’s unlikely that Sunstein’s OIRA would bear much resemblance to Graham’s, which was arguably an all-time low point for environmental and public health advocates. But anyone who’s grumbled privately that the media has over-scrutinized Obama’s choices should read the CPR report first.
