The Cost Of Government Regulation: $1.75 Trillion

Zero Hedge ^ | July 22, 2012 | Bill Buckler

[Zakeet]

The Cost Of "Intervention"

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a small “think tank” in Washington DC which puts out an annual report called: “Ten Thousand Commandments”. The report deals with the regulatory agencies of the US federal government and the cost of the regulations they continually introduce - and enforce. This report would be typical of the regulatory function of pretty well every government in the world.

In all interventionist economies, regulations are not set by the “lawmakers”. The “lawmakers” merely pass the laws, their enforcement is left to the various bureaucratic departments of government. And in order to “enforce” the laws, the bureaucrats see it as their function to impose regulations - countless thousands of them. The cost of complying with these regulations is met by those being regulated. It does NOT show up in the annual budgets (funded or unfunded) of the government.

In their Ten Thousand Commandments 2012 report which was released in June, the CEI estimates the cost of US government regulation at $US 1.75 TRILLION. That is just under half (48 percent) of the budget of the federal government. It is almost ten times the total of all corporate taxes collected and almost double the total collected from individual income taxes. It is also one-third higher than the total of all pre-tax corporate profits. It is the hidden cost of doing business in an interventionist economy. The fact that the cost of complying with these regulations is substantially higher than the total of corporate profits is a stark illustration of the end result of economic intervention. That end result is capital consumption.

In the US, the federal government lists its regulations in what is called the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules of the economic “game” cover 169,000 pages and more than ten new ones are added every day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. In 2011, the US Congress passed a total of 81 new “laws” while government agencies issued 3,807 new regulations. As the CEI points out, if there ever was an example of government without the consent of ANYONE - this is it.

[Zakeet]

... and we've got a lot more of them on the way!

[Monorprise]

This number is useless if they are not summing up the cost of the meddling Congressional acts themselves. This number would only represent a tiny fraction of the true cost in money let alone our freedom.

[Jacquerie]

The Sovereign people via their state ratifying conventions granted limited legislative powers ONLY to Congress. These powers may not legitimately be assigned, and certainly not to those beyond the reach of the ballot box.

Early last year, Florida put the brakes on regulations issued by the usual Leftist dominated bureaucracy. Every proposed regulation that could cost $1 million or more over five years must be ratified by both legislative houses.

This should be a model for our national government.

[Sarajevo]

The Cost Of Government Regulation Fat-a$$ed Bureaucrats sitting in their cubicles and playing computer games all day: $1.75 Trillion.

There. Fixed that.

[JimSEA]

But, isn’t government regulation where all Obama’s job creation comes in? So it’s a good thing. Right?