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How much government could we all do without? President Donald Trump says that red tape, when cut, becomes beautiful. Truer words were never spoken, and last week this column noted his encouraging progress in repealing misguided rules enacted by his predecessors. Now a few recent examples suggest that half or more of government regulation is completely unnecessary. Alex Adams, an assistant secretary of health and human services, writes in the
Washington Post and shares his experience in state government: What do women’s kickboxing uniforms, a dress code for deputy state veterinarians and an unaired lottery game show have in common? Until a few years ago, all of them were still regulated by legally binding requirements in Idaho’s state administrative code. These rules were not on the books because they were essential. They were there because no one had gotten around to removing them. That began to change in 2019. Longtime readers may recall the Great Idaho Do-Over, when the state’s elected officials wisely decided to retire much of the state’s rulebook. Mr. Adams shares the latest on the thriving state’s results: By July 2026, Idaho’s regulatory code was 4,201 pages shorter than its 2018 baseline — a 49 percent reduction. Sounds like a great start. Mr. Adams, a former state official in Idaho, now reports in the Post on a similar effort at his agency in the federal government:
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