They’ll talk about ‘junk fees’ but never address the financial burden of a massive, bureaucratic government

American Thinker ^ | 6 Mar, 2026 | Jack Hellner

[MtnClimber]

A new study by “progressive” think tank Groundwork Collaborative shows that junk fees and annoyance costs add up to $166 billion per year; here’s a rough breakdown, from USA Today:

Here’s how much the ‘annoyance economy’ costs consumers

[snip]

Junk fees: $90 billion a year

Phone scams: $25.4 billion

Calls with health insurance administrators: $21.6 billion

Waiting for medical services: $19.4 billion

Robocalls: $8 billion

Waiting for government services: $1.6 billion

I get ticked off at this stuff too, but this is a junk report.

Some of these things are just made up numbers, such as calls with health insurance administrators, waiting for medical services, robocalls, and waiting for government services. How the heck would you quantify that cost?

You will never see a leftist think tank calculate the full cost of government, and how it affects consumers, because these people love big government.

Where is the study showing how much government regulations, taxes, and fees cost consumers each year?

The best estimate of federal regulations shows 185,000 to 190,000 pages.

Obamacare has between 10,000 and 20,000 pages of regulations. What is the cost of compliance and administration for it?

The federal tax code has between 2,500 and 4,000 pages, with over 70,000 pages of legal interpretation. How much does that compliance cost? How much do individuals and companies have to pay to file their returns?

According to this article, there are 97 federal taxes. Here are just twenty of them:

Air Transportation Taxes

Biodiesel Fuel Taxes

Building Permit Taxes

Business Registration Fees

Capital Gains Taxes

Cigarette Taxes

Court Fines

Disposal Fees

Dog License Taxes

Drivers License Fees

Employer Health Insurance Mandate Tax

Employer Medicare Taxes

Employer Social Security Taxes

Environmental Fees

Estate Taxes

Excise Taxes On Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans

Federal Corporate Taxes

Federal Income Taxes

Federal Unemployment Taxes

[sauropod]

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