Regulations imposed on Americans by the Biden-Harris administration costs households at least $15,000 per year, according to a new report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
The costs are likely much higher due to the fact that the Biden-Harris team changed transparency rules after arriving at the White House in order to hide the impact of some regulations, according to the institute’s annual report on the federal regulatory state titled "Ten Thousand Commandments".
The cost to the nation of these regulations is $2.1 trillion.
The CEI report said that Biden and Harris have sidestepped Congress to get their leftist programs through via executive orders and regulations.
“Regulatory compliance costs and mandates borne by businesses result in higher prices, lost jobs, and lower output,” said the author of the report, CEI regulations expert Clyde Wayne Crews. “Regulations undermine the economic success of American businesses and households and drag down the economy. Congress should intervene and fix this problem.”
In citing the CEI's report, Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard called it a "swamp tax that is more than families spend on food, clothing, and education."
“Biden’s pursuit of various whole-of-government initiatives and transformation of OMB into a cheerleader for, rather than a watchdog over, regulation, I think he can greatly contribute to household costs far worse than what we imagine,” Crews said.
The CEI report's “Unconstitutionality Index,” which shows the number of rules approved by agencies for every law passed in Congress, states that federal agencies approved 3,018 final rules, though Congress passed only 68 regulatory laws, for a ratio of 44 regulations for every law.
The report also found 97 “economically significant” rules that cost the nation $100 million or more just in the past six months, “far exceeding the previous 10 years.”
Crews noted: “Prior editions of Ten Thousand Commandments have detailed Trump’s streamlining effort (2021) and Biden’s reversals (2022, 2023) and framed the latter’s pursuit of ambitious whole-of-government spending and regulatory initiatives spanning climate, equity, economic, and social matters, as well as an appetite for censorship and surveillance. This 2024 edition sets a new high-water mark of $2.1 trillion. All previous estimates had the annual total cost of federal regulations below $2 trillion. Previous editions also explained why that figure was almost certainly an undercount.”
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