Regulation Nation: Gov’t regs estimated to pound private sector with $1.8T in costs

Shannon Bream
FoxNews.com
12/6/2013

For America’s businesses, the Obama administration has an unpleasant holiday surprise.

A new report on the government’s regulatory actions was released just before Thanksgiving, and it contains more than 3,300 rules — which the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) estimates will, together with other regulations, cost more than $1.8 trillion to implement on an annual basis.

At a time when the economy is still struggling to zoom out of its post-recession rut, businesses worry that the crush of regulation is another sandbag weighing down the recovery.

“Back in the ’90s, the federal budget itself was not even $1.8 trillion,” said Wayne Crews, vice president of policy for CEI. “Now we have this entire $1.8 trillion hidden tax, you could say, of government compliance and intervention cost imposed in the economy.” …

…There have been several bipartisan efforts on Capitol Hill to get a better handle on the growing number of regulations and to press for more transparency from the agencies issuing them. According to CEI, 127 federal laws were passed last year, but more than 3,700 regulations were issued.

It’s a trend that troubles even the president’s own supporters…

 

The complete article is at FoxNews.com

 

 

H/T Don Surber. “Freedom comes with a lot of rules, doesn’t it?”

 

 

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