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July 2006

Costs Of The Regulatory State

Written by , Posted in Liberty & Limited Government, Waste & Government Reform

The Competitive Enterprise Institute offers Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Regulatory State.

Here are some of the highlights:

– Extrapolating from an assessment of the federal regulatory enterprise by economist Mark Crain, regulatory costs hit an estimated $1.13 trillion in 2005.

– Given that 2005 government spending was $2.47 trillion, the hidden tax of regulation now approaches half the size on federal spending itself.

– Regulatory costs are more than triple the $318 billion budget defi cit.

– Regulatory costs also exceed all corporate pre-tax profi ts, which were $874 billion in 2003.

– On the basis of estimates from the Weidenbaum Center and the Mercatus Center, agencies spent $38.3 billion merely to administer and police the regulatory state in 2005. Counting the $1.127 billion in off-budget costs, that brings the total regulatory burden to $1.165 billion.