Thursday, June 20, 2013

Cost of Gov't Regulation: $14,768 Per Household in 2012

The latest annual index of federal rules and regulations due this week is expected to show that the amount of red tape in the system has hit a record high and a record cost of $1.8 trillion under the Obama administration.

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.