Op-Ed: Beware Republican Deregulation

If the government would just get out of the way and free the power of the competitive market, we would have a much better economy.” It’s good political rhetoric. The current Republican administration and their pals in the Republican legislature are repeating it over and over as a part of Governor Gianforte’s “Red Tape Reduction Initiative.” The problem is, what Republicans get when they push to eliminate regulations is often not what anybody wants.

The last time we heard this kind of rhetoric was during the 1997 legislature and passage of the bill that deregulated the Montana Power Company. Th...