Tag: excess regulation

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Excess Federal Regulations Harm U.S. Economy

The White House is breaking all records when it comes to over-regulating the American people.  Research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) indicates that the Administration is on pace to enact 89,416 regulations in 2016. In mid-October, the total had already reached the 70,318 mark.

CEI notes: “six of the seven all-time high federal register page counts have happened under the Barack Obama administration. So this year is set to be a massive record-breaking year in terms of rulemaking, at least according to Federal Register heft. It is quite likely the Federal Register could top 90,000 pages.”

Washington’s addiction to regulation is more than just a nuisance. The CATO institute asserts that “It is widely recognized that excessive regulation is unnecessarily killing jobs.”

The Daily Signal found that “job-creating entrepreneurs in the United States have been dispirited by the scope and cost of escalating red tape…Since 2009, the expansion of Uncle Sam’s regulatory control has been one of the prime culprits in America’s startling decline in economic freedom and overall competitiveness. Each new edict has meant a new government bureaucracy that entrepreneurs and producers must navigate. Worse, the trend of overregulating our economy has also bred cronyism and tarnished our free-market system. As reported in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual study that benchmarks the quality and attractiveness of the entrepreneurial framework across countries, the United States remains stuck in the second tier economic freedom rank of the “mostly free,” with its business freedom score plunging to the lowest level since 2006. This increased regulatory burden, aggravated by favoritism toward entrenched interests, has notably undercut America’s historically dynamic entrepreneurial growth. A 2014 Brookings Institution analysis shows that with business exits now exceeding new business formations, entrepreneurial dynamism in the United States has been steadily dwindling. In light of the excessive and costly regulatory environment, it is not surprising that America’s ongoing economic recovery has been far from dynamic. Fewer Americans can prosper in this overregulated economy.”

The cost of compliance with the tidal wave of regulatory mandates is overwhelming. CEI estimates that in 2015, regulatory-related expenses were approximately $1.88 trillion, 10% of the entire American GDP and over 5 times the cost of federal corporate income taxes that year.

Essayist and publisher Markham Shaw Pyle’s observation was recently quoted in Inc.:  “If the power to tax is the power to destroy, the power to regulate is no less so. For the life of me, I cannot tell you why our bloated bureaucracies of city, state, and fed seem to have it in for entrepreneurs and small business.  But they apparently do…If the U.S. and the world is ever to escape the torpidity lingering from the Great Recession, to say nothing of bailing out the indebted entitlement state, it must do so on the success and vitality of creative free enterprise.  Yet, everywhere I look I see businesses groaning under unnecessary government intrusion that is antithetical to business health.”

A Heritage study reports that “The White House, Congress, and federal agencies routinely ignore regulatory costs, exaggerate benefits, breach legislative and constitutional boundaries, and increasingly dictate lifestyle choices rather than focusing on public health and safety. Absent substantial reform, economic growth and individual freedom in America will continue to suffer.”

Regulations have been imposed on the most mundane and trivial acts of daily life, and not just for businesses.  Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Ragheed Moghrabi reports that while working for a U.S. company overseas, he was compelled by IRS regulations to fill out needless tax related paperwork for his son, a fifth grader, when he attempted to open a bank account in which the youngster would store his allowance.

The question is, how to stop the seemingly endless cycle of constantly mounting regulations.

The Heritage study observed that the Obama Administration has recognized the unpopularity of its actions, but has chosen to hide those actions rather than reform them. This can be seen in the timing of its agenda releases, which have occurred with regularity at precisely the times when public and journalistic attention is most likely to be light. Christmas weekend, the day before Independence Day, and Memorial Day weekend have all been used to dump agenda releases.

As previously reported by the New York Analysis of Policy and Government, U.S. Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI), U.S. Senator Joni Ernst   (R-IA), and U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) have introduced bicameral legislation, the Midnight Rule Relief Act, to prevent a surge in costly federal regulations as a President’s term comes to a close. According to Rep. Walberg  (R-Michigan) “Given the Obama administration’s tendency to overregulate and overreach, the American people can expect to see a surge of last minute regulations in the President’s waning days in office…This bill will hold outgoing administrations in check.

The legislation would:

  • Establish a moratorium period beginning on the day after the election through the inauguration on new regulations that cost the economy $100 million or more annually, or result in major cost or price increases for consumers, industries, or government agencies.
  • Include exceptions for rules that are necessary for imminent health or safety threats, enforcement of criminal laws, and national security.
  • Exempt rules that are limited to repealing existing regulations.

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In 2015, Ernst also co-sponsored the REINS Act,  which would hold elected officials accountable to approve new major rules & regulations. The REINS Act would:

  • Designate a ‘major rule’ as any rule or regulation that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) determines to have a yearly economic impact of $100 million or more.
  • Require passage by a roll call vote in Congress and presidential signature before any new ‘major rule’ can be enacted.
  • Give Congress the ability to block burdensome new rules and regulations imposed by federal agencies.
  • Restrain the power and broad discretion of federal agencies to impose significant ‘major rules’ without congressional oversight or public discussion.
  • Pave the way for transparency and accountability within the federal rulemaking process.

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Huge growth in regulation imperils freedom

The impact of the astronomical growth of the federal government’s bureaucracy is becoming increasingly evident and worrisome. The cost can not only be counted in dollars, but in the shrinking rights of the citizenry.

An example can be seen in the Environmental Protection Agency’s addition to the Clean Waters Act. Under this draconian provision, 60% of water, including, absurdly, ponds and irrigation ditches on private property fall under the EPA’s control.

While this problem has been growing for decades, it has accelerated to an unprecedented degree under the Obama Administration and moved into many areas, such as free speech, which go to the very core of citizen rights. The President’s attempts to put monitors in newsrooms and his transfer of the Internet from private to government control are the most noticeable examples.

The Heritage Foundation’s “Opportunity for All” report notes that “in the five years following President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, 15,794 new rules were published in the federal register, of which 403 were classified as major.”

“In his January 2014 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama vowed to wield his executive powers when faced with congressional resistance to his legislative agenda: ‘America does not stand still—and neither will I’, he said. ‘So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation … that’s what I am going to do.’ This provocative declaration was startling in its bluntness, but it was hardly a new policy.

“During its first five years, the Obama Administration aggressively exploited regulation to get its way. Issuing 157 new major rules at a cost to Americans approaching $73 billion annually, this Administration is very likely the most regulatory in U.S. history. Of course, preceding Administrations also have increased regulation, albeit to a lesser degree. And regulatory overreach by the executive branch is only part of the problem. Congress, too, is a major culprit. Lawmakers routinely delegate their policy-making powers to regulatory agencies. Furthermore, much of the red tape imposed over the past five years has been driven by “independent” agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which are outside direct presidential control.

“From finance to telecommunications, these agencies have added to the regulatory tide swamping American businesses and families. And there are many more regulations to come; agencies have identified 120 additional major rules they intend to work on, including dozens linked to the 2010 Dodd–Frank financial regulation law and Obamacare. Of particular concern is that the FCC has launched yet another attempt to regulate Internet traffic. Reforms of the regulatory process are critically needed. Among these: requiring congressional approval before any new major regulation takes effect, requiring analyses of the regulatory consequences of all proposed legislation before a vote by Congress is held, setting sunset deadlines in law for all major regulations, and including ‘independent’ agencies in the White House regulatory review process.”

Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute  has written that the Administrative bureaucracy has grown so large that it now constitutes an entire “extralegal” government. He believes that “aspects of America’s legal system have become lawless” since whole portions of this administrative structure are used not for appropriate law enforcement but to achieve the social and political goals of bureaucrats. He notes in his new book “By The People” that the Code of Federal Regulations increased from 22,877 pages in 1960 to 174,545 pages in 2012.

Murray also points out that if you disagree with any of these rules, which you as a citizen had no real say in their development, in most cases your only recourse is to appeal to the very agency that you disagree with.

Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute  outlines the facts that describe this challenge:

  • Federal regulation and intervention cost American consumers and businesses an estimated $1.88 trillion in 2014 in lost economic productivity and higher prices.
  • If U.S. federal regulation was a country, it would be the world’s 10th largest economy, ranking behind Russia and ahead of India.
  • Economy-wide regulatory costs amount to an average of $14,976 per household – around 29 percent of an average family budget of $51,100. Although not paid directly by individuals, this “cost” of regulation exceeds the amount an average family spends on health care, food and transportation.
  • The “Unconstitutionality Index” is the ratio of regulations issued by unelected agency officials compared to legislation enacted by Congress in a given year. In 2014, agencies issued 16 new regulations for every law—that’s 3,554 new regulations compared to 224 new laws.
  • Many Americans complain about taxes, but regulatory compliance costs exceed what the IRS is expected to collect in both individual and corporate income taxes for last year—by more than $160 billion.
  • Some 60 federal departments, agencies and commissions have 3,415 regulations in development at various stages in the pipeline. The top six federal rulemaking agencies account for 48 percent of all federal regulations. These are the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services and Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • The 2014 Federal Register contains 77,687 pages, the sixth highest page count in its history. Among the six all-time-high Federal Register total page counts, five occurred under President Obama.
  • The George W. Bush administra­tion averaged 62 major regulations annually over eight years, while the Obama administration has averaged 81 major regulations annually over six years.But it’s not just official federal issues that are affected.  As Charles Murray points out, “Federal funds account for about a quarter of state and local revenues. Some large proportion of state and local employees are, for practical purposes, federal employees.

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