Editorial: Wasting time in Congress

Here we go again. House Republicans have turned passing one-house, anti-regulation legislation into a sport with a year-round season. Now they're getting ready to vote on another one, as soon as this week.

The title of HR 4078 seems harmless enough: "Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act." But its potential damage to the environment, to name just one area of regulation, would be devastating, if somehow the Senate went along. Its core idea is a moratorium on any new major regulations, except in dire emergencies, until the national unemployment rate averages 6 percent or lower for a full quarter -- a surpassingly difficult goal to achieve.

So far, the Senate has resisted these bad bills, as it should. This economic crisis should already have taught us the high price of deregulation.

Now, let's spend a little more time on jobs.