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.