Tim Scott:Bring America backfrom regulatory cliff

'Falling off a cliff" -- when you read that phrase, there is no doubt what image comes to your mind. Sadly, that is where our nation's regulatory environment has been pushed after years of inching closer and closer to the edge.
I recently traveled throughout the Lowcountry meeting with small business owners and hearing their personal stories of how burdensome and overreaching federal regulations have harmed their ability to do business. I talked with truckers, fishermen, construction workers and builders, and even a company, Blue Flame, which services fireplaces like many of us have in our living rooms. Yes, you read that correctly -- the U.S. Department of Energy is proposing to come into our homes and regulate gas fireplaces. Now that is a scary thought, and a massive federal overreach.
We heard from a recreational fisherman, Capt. Keith Logan, who due to federal catch limits, which were determined to have used outdated science, stands to lose up to $27,000 this year because of cancelled charter tours. Because our fishermen want to fish next season, too, not one of them wants to overfish our waters.
We talked with Bulldog Hiway Express in North Charleston, where a proposed U.S. Department of Transportation rule regulating the number of hours a trucker can drive in a day will take $6,000 away from their families a year. The federal DOT says this rule is to make our roads safer, while seemingly ignoring the fact that under the current rules the number of truck-related fatalities has dropped by nearly 40 percent since 2006.
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