These regulations severely hamper businesses, individuals, hiring and economic growth. The Competitive Enterprise Institute publishes an “annual snapshot of the federal regulatory state” entitled, “Ten Thousand Commandments.” This year’s edition paints a stark picture of the hidden cost regulations impose:
- Federal regulation compliance and intervention costs $1.88 trillion/year or 11% of U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
- Federal regulations now exceed half the amount the federal government spends annually.
- The total cost of federal regulation on U.S. households equates to $14,976 per home per year - around 29% of an average family budget of $51,100.
- If U.S. regulation was a stand-alone economy, it would be the world’s 10th largest, just behind Russia and ahead of India.
- The 2014 Federal Register contains 77,687 pages. That equates to 324 new pages of federal rules, laws, cases and orders per work day.
- Of the 77,687 pages in the 2014 Federal Register, unelelected bureaucrats issued 24,861 in the form of regulations.
Source: Ten Thousand Commandments, An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, 2015 Edition by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
