The 20th anniversary edition of the index, compiled by Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, will show that the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit a peak of 174,545 in 2012, an increase of more than 21% during the last decade, reports The Wall Street Journal. If a person tried to read all of it, he would have to read 698 pages per work day every day for the entire year.
Using government data, Crews estimates that in 2012 the cost of complying and implementing federal rules was roughly equal to the entire GDP of Canada.
The costs to each American household amount to approximately $14,768, making the red tape caused by regulations the biggest expense after housing in a typical family budget.
