Bureaucrats in the Way

Is your business "needed"? Bizarrely, in many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is "needed." Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula NewellDavis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn't proved her business was needed. "Why does the state of Louisiana have the right to stop me from doing what I love?" she asks in this update video. Good question. Ursula has a master's degree and a social work license. For two decades, she's helped kids with special needs. One, Kamal, told us he struggled to make friends, until Ursula "helped teach me how to talk to people." Kamal's mother is grateful: "She explained to me things that I didn't understand about my kids. It allowed me to go back into the community and work." Ursula helped many families. But four years ago, she tried to help more kids by doing short-term respite work. Louisiana wouldn't let her. "You have these skills, you could help people," I tell her. "What do you think is going on with these regulators?" "Louisiana wants to limit how many agencies they have to regulate," she replies. "Make it easy for the state." Anastasia Boden of the Pacific Legal Foundation is helping Ursula sue Louisiana, arguing that its regulation is unconstitutional. "Louisiana gives you no clue about how to prove you're needed," says Boden. "That would be difficult for even the best entrepreneurs. Nobody can prove with any certainty that they're needed." Right. I can't prove Stossel TV is "needed." Is McDonald's needed? What about the local phone store? "The only way to find out is to open up your doors and try," says Boden. But Ursula isn't allowed to try, even after giving regulators what they demanded: She rented office space, paid fees and wrote seven pages about why her work is "needed." Louisiana decided that wasn't good enough. That's what usually happens. The year Ursula applied, the state turned down 75% of applicants. The health department says it limits "the burden on regulators." "That's just not a legitimate excuse," complains Boden, "that government doesn't have enough money to administer people's constitutional rights." Stossel TV reached out, but state officials wouldn't talk to us about their rule. Thirty-five states and Washington, D.C. have (appropriately named) "CON" laws requiring entrepreneurs to get a Certificate of Need before opening certain businesses. This creates nasty side effects. Try not to get injured in Kentucky. The state's CON law for ambulances results in longer wait times for transportation. But Louisiana is the only state that applies this nonsense to social workers doing respite work. The result: "Consumers in Louisiana are less satisfied with their care," says Boden. "It might be easier for the government, but that's not benefiting consumers." 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POSTMASTER: Please send changes of address to 280 Magnolia Street, Magnolia, Mississippi 39652 web site: www.magnoliagazette.com BUREAUCRATS IN THE WAY by John Stossel What's wrong with being patriotic? by Daniel Gardner, Special to the Gazette I don't remember celebrating June 6 growing up. I remember people talking about D-Day, and reminiscing about the allied invasion of western Europe on that date in 1944, but celebrating is not quite the right word for June 6 in history. One of my Russian friends loved to tell me about Russian military's prowess fighting the Germans. I've visited Russia ten times, and from the first visit the strongest impression I received was of Russian battles, wars, and victories. As we discussed America's alliance with Russia to fight the Germans, I pointed out the big turning point of June 6 and the invasion of western Europe. My friend dismissed D-Day as nothing comparable with Russia's conquests over Germany on the eastern front. My father was a Naval Aviator fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. I was much more familiar with those battles than the fighting in Europe. The Big War, i.e. WWII, always superseded other wars or "conflicts" in conversations when I was growing up. It seemed like someone was always fighting someone else somewhere in the world. Wars and rumors of wars will continue to the end. I remember people being divided over the Vietnam conflict as it was called, though I really didn't know enough about it to know who we were fighting or why. Ignorance truly is bliss. As an adult with two sons, I have paid a lot more attention to wars and politics in my later years. History teaches us that man is predisposed to fight, if not those outside our borders, then those within. Why? Power. I vividly remember the Civil Rights battles of the 1960s. The problem with battles and wars is that one side has to win. All the other sides have to lose at least by degrees. That's Marxism in a nutshell. Enemies of America, both foreign and domestic are dividing us to conquer us. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress recognized the Stars and Stripes as the national flag of the United States of America. How could anyone refuse to celebrate our national flag? And yet, some among us not only refuse to celebrate, but choose to fight! Why? June 14 is President Trump's birthday. June 14 is also my sister's birthday and my cousin's birthday. A lot of people have birthdays every day! Let's not begrudge how people choose to celebrate their birthdays. We have become a nation that loves to fight "them." We have become the Hatfields and the McCoys! Stop it! June 14 is the date the Continental Congress established the Continental Army in 1775. For what it's worth, in 1964, Congress recognized a product legally defined as a "distinctive product of the United States." Yes, National Bourbon Day celebrates American whiskey produced by a mash of at least 51 percent corn, aged in new charred oak containers, and distilled primarily in Kentucky. There are at least 13 other national holidays celebrated on June 14. Thousands of American men and women of all races have died protecting our nation and the flag. It's not about bitter old fools fighting. It's about recognizing all of us as one nation under God. Let's act that way for the good and the future of our nation. What's wrong with being patriotic particularly in the 250th year of our birth. Of course not! But the result is to deprive people of economic opportunity and to make care worse," says Boden. Now, four years later, Boden's latest lawsuit winds its way through America's bureaucratic courts, and bureaucrats still won't let Ursula do respite work. But good news: Ursula now helps people with special needs by employing them at her new fried chicken restaurant. At least Louisiana's government doesn't get to decide if a new restaurant is "needed." What Louisiana's bureaucrats do is just wrong. So often, government just gets in the way.