The Road to Regulatory Tyranny II

 

Most citizens are shocked to find out that federal regulations cost our economy nearly an estimated $1.9 trillion annually. That's 11% of the US gross domestic product. It's a huge drag on our entire economy. This is one more reason why it is important to vote wisely this election cycle.

The greatest hit comes from environmental ($386 billion), economic ($399 billion) and tax compliance ($316 billion); areas that impact every person and business in America. To be sure some regulations are necessary and needed. However, these needed regulations are but a small portion of those that actually necessary and needed. Most regulations, however, are lawless (unconstitutional according to original intent), allowing federal agencies the ability to abuse citizens in their jurisdiction.

The information comes from Ten Thousand Commandments, an annual in-depth report on federal regulation by Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Before you continue reading be sure to take your blood pressure medication. A couple of aspirin wouldn't hurt either.

Lest you think this doesn't pertain to you, the study found that if your family is average, your family's share is $14,976, or 29% of the $51,000 expenditures you make every year. That's only slightly less than the $17,148 your family pays annually for your mortgage and maintenance of your home.

Regulations are a hidden tax that falls on everyone, but especially heaviest on the poor. If you never seem to get ahead of the game, it's probably because of the huge regulatory cost making everything much more expensive. Take for instance, small business. In 2014 Congress passed 224 laws (and you thought it was a do-nothing Congress) that were then used by unelected federal bureaucrats to impose 3,554 “final rules” found within 77,687 pages of the Federal Register. Those "final rules" essentially become the law.

If that doesn't overwhelm you, there have been 90,836 final rules since 1993. Worse, the agencies publish 24,000 public notices annually, usually buried in the back of the newspaper somewhere where those impacted won’t find them. Big companies have a bevy of lawyers to keep up with the myriad of new rules. But a small business can't afford that.

Small businesses may not even know about a destructive "final rule" until a zealous agency enforcer or informer rats on them and the business suddenly finds itself out of conformance facing penalties of tens of thousands of dollars a day. Many go out of business, along with the jobs they provide. If they manage to stay in business these companies pass the cost onto the consumer, increasing the cost of living.

There is a benefit to federal agencies promulgating thousands of final rules every year. There is rarely any oversight. Very few of the final rules are accompanied by a cost-benefit analysis. Even if there is, the benefits of the final rules are greatly exaggerated; often by orders of magnitude larger than justified. The examples are legion, yet the agencies are rarely challenged.

Writing for CFACT Paul Driesson states, "Many [rules] are supported only by 'homogenized,' manipulated data; elaborate, imaginative or imaginary regulatory benefits; cavalier dismissal of costs; and no mention of benefits from the activity, chemical, energy source, industry or jobs being regulated, sometimes into oblivion." Obama's War on Coal is a good example. (See the previous blog)

During the Obama administration it has become the rule for agencies to grab as much power as possible; making examples of individuals and businesses as part of the process. If their overreach is challenged in court, and they lose, so what? It is your money they are spending. In the meantime the agency lives to create three new rules for the one they lost in court. It is lawless tyranny.