Word: sunstein
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...reason is Sunstein's support for cost-benefit analysis, the practice of examining regulations to ensure that their benefit to society outweighs whatever costs they impose. Liberal advocacy groups claim that cost-benefit analysis has been a weapon that every Republican President since Ronald Reagan - who created OIRA - has used to thwart effective government regulation of the environment, workplace and consumer safety. OIRA, after all, examines all proposed federal regulations before they take effect - be they issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - and it has the power...
...Cass Sunstein would not seem the kind of presidential appointee to get liberal groups up in arms. A professor at the University of Chicago Law School (and this year a visiting professor at Harvard) and prolific author, Sunstein is a reliable liberal on most questions of law and policy. So when President Barack Obama chose his old friend for a very powerful Washington job, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), it seemed safe to assume that the appointment would be treated as good news by the environmental, labor and consumer groups that have been in despair...
...reaction, however, was much more muted. Since Sunstein is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate, few people are willing to go public with criticisms. But "extremely disappointed" is how one person describes the general reaction among liberal advocacy groups at the prospect of Sunstein becoming what many call the "regulatory czar." (See who's who in Obama's White House...
...Consider government standards for allowable amounts of arsenic in water, a topic Sunstein has written about. A standard set at 3 parts per billion will save more lives than a standard set at 10 parts per billion, but it will also cost more to achieve - a cost that will in turn be passed on to consumers in their water bills. If it can be shown that the more stringent standard would result in saving 10 lives per year, how much would society be willing to pay to achieve that? Ten million dollars? A hundred million? A billion...
...Making that calculation, of course, requires placing a dollar value on human life, which can mean getting into some sensitive areas. Sunstein has written in support of what some people call the "senior death discount," the statistical practice of taking into account years of life expectancy when evaluating a regulation. By that measure, for example, it would be harder to justify spending to correct an environmental hazard that posed more of a threat to the elderly than one that was more dangerous to children, who have many more years ahead of them...