Regulators Thrive While Economy Struggles Under Obama
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Government: The private economy might be moribund, but the regulatory economy is doing quite well, thank you very much. Could it be that the two are somehow related?
By just about every relevant measure, the regulatory state has grown in size, intrusiveness and cost under this administration. This is made clear by the latest annual "Ten Thousand Commandments" report compiled by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
CEI reckons the annual cost to comply with federal rules and regulations was $1.88 trillion in 2014. It doesn't include the massive costs of greenhouse-gas and other rules that the EPA is finalizing.
To put this hidden tax in perspective, it is:
• Equivalent of $14,976 per household, which is more than a typical household spends on everything except for mortgage or rent.
• Almost six times what businesses pay in federal income taxes.
• Bigger than the GDP of all but nine countries.
Further hampering economic growth is the fact that these costs hit job-creating small businesses harder than big ones — $11,724 per employee for firms with fewer than 50 workers vs. $9,083 for those with more than 100, the CEI report shows.
And the regulation tax is increasing at a rapid clip. The average number of "economically significant" rules — those with more than $100 million in annual compliance costs — in the pipeline each year under President Obama has been 206, 41% higher than the average under President Bush.
Just the cost of enforcing federal economic regulations is now $11.4 billion, up 31% since Obama took office, and the "Code of Federal Regulations" is 17,294 pages longer.
Interestingly, the one area that's won a reprieve from this onslaught is state and local government. The average number of rules affecting state governments, for example, dropped almost 15% under Obama.
CEI's annual "Unconstitutionality Index," which is a ratio of regulations issued by unelected federal bureaucrats to the number of laws signed by the president, is also disturbing. The average ratio has been 31 new regulations for every single law passed.
This is as much an indictment of Congress as of the president. Far too often, lawmakers pass bills that grant regulators wide discretion in enforcing laws. Not surprisingly, regulators take advantage of this discretion to expand their turf. The FCC's "net neutrality" power grab is the latest example.
Until this massive federal regulatory burden is lightened, it's hard to see how the private economy will ever be able to take flight.
By just about every relevant measure, the regulatory state has grown in size, intrusiveness and cost under this administration. This is made clear by the latest annual "Ten Thousand Commandments" report compiled by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
CEI reckons the annual cost to comply with federal rules and regulations was $1.88 trillion in 2014. It doesn't include the massive costs of greenhouse-gas and other rules that the EPA is finalizing.
To put this hidden tax in perspective, it is:
• Equivalent of $14,976 per household, which is more than a typical household spends on everything except for mortgage or rent.
• Almost six times what businesses pay in federal income taxes.
• Bigger than the GDP of all but nine countries.
Further hampering economic growth is the fact that these costs hit job-creating small businesses harder than big ones — $11,724 per employee for firms with fewer than 50 workers vs. $9,083 for those with more than 100, the CEI report shows.
And the regulation tax is increasing at a rapid clip. The average number of "economically significant" rules — those with more than $100 million in annual compliance costs — in the pipeline each year under President Obama has been 206, 41% higher than the average under President Bush.
Just the cost of enforcing federal economic regulations is now $11.4 billion, up 31% since Obama took office, and the "Code of Federal Regulations" is 17,294 pages longer.
Interestingly, the one area that's won a reprieve from this onslaught is state and local government. The average number of rules affecting state governments, for example, dropped almost 15% under Obama.
CEI's annual "Unconstitutionality Index," which is a ratio of regulations issued by unelected federal bureaucrats to the number of laws signed by the president, is also disturbing. The average ratio has been 31 new regulations for every single law passed.
This is as much an indictment of Congress as of the president. Far too often, lawmakers pass bills that grant regulators wide discretion in enforcing laws. Not surprisingly, regulators take advantage of this discretion to expand their turf. The FCC's "net neutrality" power grab is the latest example.
Until this massive federal regulatory burden is lightened, it's hard to see how the private economy will ever be able to take flight.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment