Congressman Don Young told an Anchorage Rotary Club earlier this week that every federal regulation created in the past 20 years should be erased from the books.

OK, Congressman, you have our attention.

Young says he plans to introduce a law that would wipe two decades of laws out of existence. To bring any of them back, regulators would have to justify them.

"I picked 20 years ago because . . . we were prosperous at that time," he says, and both parties were responsible for the ensuring legislative landslide.

He makes a good point. "We" were.

Young hasn't finalized his legislation yet; it's still in the works, and the simple idea will need some specifics. Some regulations address real concerns. Most regulations came about as a result of someone, a business, an industry or a government entity doing something that shouldn't have been done.

Americans are going to have to improve their behavior, which would be the best approach. Or some regulations are necessary.

Still, some regulations seem excessive. They should be abolished. They were written to kill instead of correct, i.e. kill the economy, industry, business, not correct their behavior in a way for the nation and its citizens to thrive.

Congressman Young should chair a panel similar to the Committee of 12 to oversee the review of all federal regulations since 1980. He and other Congressmen need to do it because the number of regulations is increasing as you read this.

President Obama wants to add 220,000 new regulators in the Environmental Protection Agency. If you have problems with Young's idea, then you must become somewhat sympathetic when you learn of Obama's. It's preposterous. Not to mention, it's that many for one agency. The feds have hundreds of agencies.

No wonder Young is proposing a law to deal with federal regulations.