And how Biden is making it worse
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[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
By Tyler O’Neil
The Daily Signal
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Americans expect to pay federal taxes, but the federal government also picks their pockets in more hidden ways, and President Joe Biden is making the problem worse in pursuing his political agenda, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
“American households pay at least $14,000 in hidden regulatory costs every year,” Wayne Crews, the Fred L. Smith fellow in regulatory studies at the institute, says in a new video provided exclusively to The Daily Signal. “Instead of finding ways to cut those costs for Americans, President Biden’s whole-of-government policymaking framework prioritizes political causes like climate change and equity in the regulatory process.”
“At CEI, we believe it is essential to increase transparency and accountability in the rulemaking process, and make sure rulemaking agencies stick to their original mandates,” adds Crews, who lays out three major recommendations in his new report, “Ten Thousand Commandments: A Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State,” published Wednesday.
“Rules made by federal agencies impose a cost of government that extends well beyond what Washington taxes,” Crews told The Daily Signal. “Federal environmental, safety and health, social, and economic regulations grip the economy, making it needlessly harder and more expensive to run a household or business in this country.”
His analysis—the latest in a series of annual reports—finds that the average American household pays $14,514 annually in a hidden regulatory cost.
“This amount exceeds every item in the household budget, except housing,” notes the report, which The Daily Signal obtained prior to its publication. “A typical American household spends more on embedded regulation than on health care, food, transportation, entertainment, apparel, services, or savings.” That number represents 17% of an average income before taxes ($87,434 in 2022).
Crews calculated the costs of regulation on the entire economy as $1.939 trillion, and found the average cost per household by dividing that gargantuan number by 133.6 million households.