Federal regulations added record-breaking costs of $2.1 trillion for the average American in 2023, according to a study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released Tuesday.
The eye-popping sum, which incorporates the calculated impact of federal regulations as well as compliance costs, resulted in a “hidden tax” of $15,788 per U.S. household, and was equivalent to nearly 8% of GDP, the CEI’s annual “Ten Thousand Commandments” report found. The Biden administration helped drive the surge in regulatory costs, completing 97 rules with costs of $100 million or more.
President Joe Biden’s new regulations on small businesses were also partially responsible for the increase, according to CEI.
“Biden’s three years have averaged 870 rules annually in the Federal Register affecting small business, compared with 694 and 701 for Obama and Trump, respectively,” wrote Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., the study’s author, who researches federal regulations at CEI.
Overall, the Biden administration finalized 3,018 rules in 2023, the second lowest count since 1976. But the number of pages in the Federal Register detailing those rules was the second-highest per year on record, suggesting the regulations may be “broader in scope,” the study said.
The $2.1 trillion cost of regulations — equivalent to 8% of GDP — was also driven by “Biden-era mandates” that “affect[ed] state and local governments at heights not seen in over a decade,” according to the study.
The largest segment in the annual cost of federal regulation and intervention was economic regulation, with an expense of $522 billion in 2023. The environment was a close second, with a price tag of $422 billion.
CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments” also noted the amount of labor spent creating regulations.
“The 10.34 billion hours Washington says it took to complete federal paperwork in 2022…translate to the equivalent of 14,883 human lifetimes,” Crews Jr. wrote, citing the Information Collection Budget.
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