Regulation Makes It Expensive to Employ People
The total federal regulatory burden is at least $1.8 trillion per year and growing. More than 3,500 new rules have come into effect each year of both George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies. The Code of Federal Regulations, where all these rules are stored, is more than 169,000 pages long. Small businesses spend more than $10,000 per employee per year to comply with federal rules.
As Ryan Young and Wayne Crews observe, trimming the regulatory state with a commission modeled on the Base Closure and Realignment Commission would be one way of helping the economy. [Washington Times, December 18]
