Posted on 02/17/2015 11:24:05 AM PST by PapaNew
Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the federal regulatory state. Authored by CEI Vice President for Policy Clyde Wayne Crews, it shines a light on the large, growing, and hidden costs of America’s regulatory state.
The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering, but federal regulations cost hundreds of billions – perhaps trillions – of dollars annually. Unfortunately, they get little attention in policy debates. Regulatory costs are difficult to quantify because, unlike taxes, they are unbudgeted and often indirect. Ten Thousand Commandments compiles scattered government and private data on the numbers and costs of regulations and about the agencies that issue them, in an attempt to make the regulatory state more comprehensible.
Highlights of the 2014 Edition Include:
Combined with $3.454 trillion in federal spending, Washington’s share of the economy now reaches 31 percent.
Costs for Americans to comply with federal regulations reached $1.863 trillion in 2013. That is more than the GDPs of Canada or Australia.
This is the 21st edition of Ten Thousand Commandments. In that time, 87,282 final rules have been issued. That’s more than 3,500 per year or about nine per day.
The “Unconstitutionality Index” is the ratio of regulations issued by agencies compared to legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. The ratio stood at 51 for 2013. That means there were 72 new laws and 3,659 new rules – 51 rules for every law, or a new rule every 2 ½ hours.
Regulatory costs amount to an average of $14,974 per household – 23 percent of the average household income of $65,596 and 29 percent of the expenditure budget of $51,442. This exceeds every item in the household budget except housing – more than health care, food, transportation, entertainment, apparel, services, and savings. Some 63 departments, agencies and commissions have regulations in the pipeline.
The 2013 Federal Register contains 79,311 pages, the fourth highest ever. The top two all-time totals are 81,405 pages in 2010 and 81,247 in 2011, both under Obama.
The top six federal rulemaking agencies account for 49.3 percent of all federal rules. In 2013, these were the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, and Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Small businesses pay more in per-employee regulatory costs. Firms with fewer than 20 employees pay an average of $10,585 per employee, compared to $7,755 for those with 500 or more employees.
Costs for Americans to comply with federal regulations reached $1.863 trillion in 2013...[and]amount to an average of $14,974 per household
They started tracking this stuff in 1976. Total number of regulations (1976-2013, more if you go back further): approx 185,000 rules.
Total number of pages of regulations: 2.5 million pages.
In 2013, the Daily Caller described it this way:
A standard ream of 20-pound weight paper, standard for office use, is about two inches thick. From that, we can calculate that our 1.43 million-page stack would be 476 feet tall. It would also weigh more than seven tons. Fittingly, this regulatory tower would rival the Washington Monument’s 555 feet for supremacy of Washington’s skyline. In fact, if the tower were to keep growing at its 20-year average pace, it would surpass the Washington Monument in 2016.
Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, when is enough enough? This is a literal mountain of invalid and unconstitutional law which comes not from the legislative branch of government but from the unconstitutional forth branch - the "Administrative" branch. This is the rule by the whims of man totally divorced form the Rule of Law of the Constitution, the ONLY LEGAL authority for federal action. THIS IS TYRANNY.
Are there any states out there that have had enough and are ready to bail by rejecting unconstitutional federal acts? I'm all for the Convention of States effort, but that doesn't prevent states from taking immediate action to begin nullifying unconstitutional federal laws and court decisions.
Let's get states to act before we don't have a country left.
FYI...
Although this article came out last year, it is up to date because the 2014 numbers haven’t come out yet. The issue is as politically relevant as anything I can think of.
The Daily Caller article is here...
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/21/the-towering-federal-register/
Remember the “not knowing the law is no excuse”? Good luck knowing millions of laws. They’ll hang you with them...unless you’re an illegal alien. Then you’re magically exempt.
The country is toast. With even the republican idiots supporting amnesty and the downright fraud democrats are allowing with the illegal vote conservatives will not win again. Yes, I am not optimistic about the country’s future.
As for regulations I ignore them pretty much. I only have to pay for them. The regulations are nothing more than an employment program for unemployable political science majors. If they didn’t issue regulation after regulation they’d have nothing to do.
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