This post comments on the method for managing regulation and regulatory costs in the POTUS’s Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs.

I begin by acknowledging Anne’s great post on the executive order.   She explains well in that post the overall scope/content of the order and shares information relevant to its potential impact on business start-ups.  She also makes some related observations, including one that prompts the title for her post: “Trumps 2 for 1 Special.”  In a comment to her post, I noted that I had another analogy in mind.  Here it is: closet cleaning and maintenance.

You’ve no doubt heard that an oft-mentioned rule for thinning out an overly large clothing collection is “one in, one out.”  Under the rule, for every clothing item that comes in (some limit the rule’s application to purchased items, depending on the objectives desired to be served beyond keeping clothing items to a particular number), a clothing item must go out (be donated, sold, or simply tossed).  Some have expanded the rule to “one in, two out” or “one in, three out,” as needed.  The mechanics are the same.  The rule requires maintaining a status quo as to the number of items in one’s closet and, in doing so, may tend to discourage the acquisition of new items.

Articulated advantages/values of this kind of a rule for wardrobe maintenance include the following:

• simplicity (the rule is easy to understand);
• rigor (the rule instills discipline in the user);
• forced awareness/consciousness (the rule must be thoughtfully addressed in taking action); and
• experimentation encouragement (the rule invites the user to try something new rather than relying on something tried-and-true).

Disadvantages and questions about the rule include those set forth below.

• The rule assumes that it is the number of items that is the problem, not other attributes of them (i.e., age, condition, size, suitability for current lifestyle, etc.).
• Once new items are acquired, the rule assumes that existing ones are no longer needed or are less desirable.
• The rule operates ex post (it assumes the introduction of a new item) rather than ex ante (allowing the root problem to be addressed before the new item is introduced).
• The rule encourages an in/out cycle that incorporates the root of the problem (excess shopping) rather than addressing it.
• Definitional questions require resolution (e.g., what is an item of clothing).

Internet sources from which these lists were culled and derived include the article linked to above as well as articles posted here and here.

Regulation is significantly more complex than clothing.  But let’s assume that we all agree that the list of advantages/values set forth above also applies to executive agency rule making.  Let’s also assume the validity and desirability of the core policy underlying the POTUS’s executive order on executive agency rule making, as set forth below (and excerpted from Section 1 of the executive order).

It is the policy of the executive branch to be prudent and financially responsible in the expenditure of funds, from both public and private sources. In addition to the management of the direct expenditure of taxpayer dollars through the budgeting process, it is essential to manage the costs associated with the governmental imposition of private expenditures required to comply with Federal regulations.

How do the closet organization disadvantages or questions stack up when applied in the executive agency rule-making context?  Here’s my “take.”