The command and control mandates of ObamaCare continue to cause unintended consequences for businesses.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) has a history of making peculiar remarks that have often become the butt of jokes on talk radio. In a 2010 committee hearing, for example, he expressed his "fear" that Guam would "tip over and capsize" due to overpopulation. In April 2013, while the lower chamber was debating the Helium Stewardship Act, he told his colleagues to "[i]magine...a world without balloons."

Americans already face a $1.8 trillion regulatory burden. These heavy costs are passed on by businesses to consumers, who spend almost a quarter of their annual income complying with regulations often approved executive-level agencies, which have effectively become the fourth branch of the federal government.

We all know that Congress has some big ticket items on its agenda for next year - repealing ObamaCare, balancing the budget, reining the president’s executive authority, but receiving less attention than perhaps they should are a number of smaller regulatory battles in which the new Republican majority could make a real difference.

The Food and Drug Administration is going to try its hand at shaming consumers into making healthier choices when they go out to eat.

The Pebble Project would not only bring a new copper and gold mine to Alaska, it would bring an economic boom to the region with nationwide effects. Too bad that it was blocked by the EPA before it was even given a chance.

Precedent is a powerful thing. Once something has been established as acceptable behavior, there will inevitably be a flood of eager followers. That is why trailblazers get all the credit. The brave souls who test the waters, who first go where no one else dares, who push the envelope and set the stage for the rest of us. In many walks of life, such as science, exploration, and philosophy, these people are heroes, pushing mankind forward even when it is dangerous to do so. In politics, however, the trailblazer all too often covers territory that would have been better left unexplored.

UPDATE: FreedomWorks activists sent over 4,000 messages to the EPA to stop the proposed rule that would have given the agency the power to garnish the wages of private citizens. A notice published in the Federal Register formally withdrew the rule. The EPA had previously stated that they would withdraw the rule if adverse comments were received by August 1.

When the Clean Water Act was first conceived, the EPA could only restrict entrepreneurs when they attempted to pollute bodies of water that were used by their fellow businesses, or what the EPA calls ‘navigable waters.’ However, its original mission is far too modest for modern-day bureaucrats.