The Department of Oversight for Overseeing Permissions Allowing References to Things Jesus Will/Might/Could Do, wept. In triplicate. CEI:
Federal regulations cost even more than the skyrocketing federal budget deficit, and help bring the federal government’s share of the economy to over 35 percent, a new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute reveals.
Regulations cost $1.75 trillion in compliance costs according to the Small Business Administration. That’s greater than the record federal budget deficit—projected at $1.48 trillion for FY 2011—and greater even than all corporate pretax profits. This is only one of many findings of the new edition of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, a survey of the cost and compliance burden imposed by federal regulations.
“Trillion-dollar deficits and regulatory costs approaching $2 trillion annually are both unsettling new developments for America,” said report author, Wayne Crews, CEI Vice President for Policy. “Every year, the federal government blows past previous deficit, debt, and regulatory burdens with no end in sight. No wonder Americans are fed up with Washington.”
The costs of federal regulations often exceed the benefits, yet receive little official scrutiny from Congress. The report urges Congress to step up and take responsibility for the state of the nation by reviewing and rolling back economically-harmful regulations.
Among the report’s findings:
• The Federal Register stands at an all-time record-high 81,405 pages.
• In 2010, federal agencies issued 3,573 final rules.
• While agencies issued 3,573 final rules, Congress passed and the president signed into law a comparatively “few” 217 bills. Considerable lawmaking power is delegated to unelected bureaucrats at agencies, an abuse addressed recently in proposals such as the REINS Act.
• Alarmingly, proposed rules in the Federal Register have surged from 2,044 in 2009 to 2,439 in 2010, a jump of 19.3 percent.
• Of the 4,225 rules now in the regulatory pipeline, 224 are “economically significant” meaning they wield at least $100 million in economic impact—this is an increase of 22 percent over 2009’s 184 rules.
• Given 2010’s government spending (outlays) of $3.456 trillion, the regulatory “hidden tax” of $1.75 trillion stands at an unprecedented 50.7 percent of the level of federal spending itself.
• Regulatory costs exceed all 2008 corporate pretax profits of $1.463 trillion.
• Regulatory costs dwarf corporate income taxes of $157 billion.
• Regulatory costs tower over the estimated 2010 individual income taxes of $936 billion by 87 percent—nearly double the level.
• Regulatory costs of $1.75 trillion absorb 11.9 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), estimated at $14.649 trillion in 2010.
• Combining regulatory costs with federal FY 2010 outlays of $3.456 trillion reveals a federal government whose share of the entire economy now reaches 35.5 percent.
That’s European soft socialism, folks — where close to 20% actual unemployment and under employment, just like inflated fuel costs, is the established norm.
But hey. Small price to pay for environmental sound low flush toilets and phosphorus free dish detergent.
The Federal Register stands at an all-time record-high 81,405 pages
Starting to sound like Kafka’s parable “Before The Law.”
At any rate, a society where the laws are so vast and labyrinthine that no one knows their full extent and meaning is a society devoid of law.
The lovely thing is that for committing the sin of proposing to defund a $40 million Office Of Toilet Paper Thickness And Softness Testing Accreditation Standards, you’ll be accused of wanting to let the Koch Brothers dump toxic waste in everyone’s back yard. Because evidently they’re the same thing.
Ironic that the Tea Party — knuckle-dragging cousin-humpers, the lot of ’em — can understand the difference between sensible, necessary regulations and stupid, counterproductive regulatory overreach, while the nuanced thinkers in the Central Planning Party cannot make any such fine distinctions.
And I look forward to the day when we need to get an EPA permit to have offspring, because humans are the worst pollution on Earth, and Congress demands that EPA regulate polluters. I have no doubt that the EPA will be completely fair and equitable in issuing its procreation permits, showing no favoritism to members of sympathetic political groups.
Unclosed link and italics tags here, Jeff.
Harsanyi just tweeted a fantastic definition of Classical Liberal:
And I look forward to the day when we need to get an EPA permit to have offspring
That will be required only of people with higher income and education levels (*cough whitey cough*) because they selfishly consume most of the resources and make the most pollution.
You can already see it coming.
Is the classical liberal thing going to start taking off, do you think? It would be an epic reclaiming of a word that is rightly ours.
Progressives are to real liberalism like Meghan McCain is to real political analysis.
I’ll add it as a post, dicentra, so we’ll have it at our disposal in perpetuity. After we discuss it.
In the 111th Congress, 84 out of 383 public laws were “designate” laws (naming federal buildings).
For maximum entertainment, though, just go peruse the Roll Call votes.
Some examples:
Your hard-working Congress on the job!
These weren’t cherry-picked; they were the last few acts of silliness of the last couple of days of the 111th Congress, 1st session. The second session closed in a more businesslike fashion, but there was the sinister-sounding Slaughter of New York Amendment that I just had to look into.
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I meant by “completely fair and equitable,” George.
Suggestions for possible future Roll Call votes:
Recognizing the 15th anniversary of the “Lewinsky” as a cultural meme
Honoring the Transgendered Lovesick Cowboy Poet Society on gaining its third member
Recognizing the lifelong leadership of Fred McGriff, the Crime Dog
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on biodegradable sporks and sustainably farmed mud herring in the Capitol commissary
Honoring the 4000th anniversary of the Light Source of the Future, the candle
Seriously, who gives a flying fuck about the 70th anniversary of the retirement of Justice Brandeis?
Honoring the coiner of “Win The Future” for bravery in the face of certain public ridicule.
On Friday I got a call from a consultant on-site at a Federal contractor who told me he was told to stop working because he was notified by one of the project owners that his work violated a particular regulation. He was implementing a process to track compliance with the same particular regulation. I shit you not. There are four people on the same pay grade there that have four different opinions of how the regulation should be implemented and as far as I can tell by my reading they are all right. I am cooking up an ulcer that could possibly eat its way through to the surface.
Squid,
Heh.
I look forward to the day when the federal EPA ceases to exist. Defund that ravenous beast.
I could forgive Nixon for Watergate. I can never forgive him for the EPA.
I’ll add it as a post, dicentra, so we’ll have it at our disposal in perpetuity. After we discuss it.
Better you than me. My brain is firing on only two cylinders today.
Looking at LMC’s #13 I am seeing something I haven’t seen in quite a while: TrollHammer links. Not on any other comments though.
Unfortunately I don’t dare test them to see if they work because, well, it’s LMC.
Trollhammer? Me? Shit. I wasn’t even thinking about food.
It’s only that one comment (and the links are indeed still there), though I just saw them again on someone else’s comment on another thread.
Am I the only one seeing them, or is this my Haley Joel Osment moment?
I see them too, McGehee.
I see nothing but Outlaw people… o_O