WANT to know why the pace of this economic recovery is only half the pace of the 1980s recovery? Or why the U.S. continues to spend and consume more than it produces, generating large trade deficits? Try the high and rising regulatory burden on businesses of all shapes and sizes. A recent essay by former U.S. Senate staffer Cesar Conda, published by the Institute for Policy Innovation, points out that the rising cost of regulations has become the major concern of small-business entrepreneurs, property owners, and state and local officials who must comply with the “growing web of regulatory mandates.” The total annual cost of complying with federal regulations is now $581 billion, or $5,934 per household. The number of Federal Government employees implementing these regulations is 126,815, an all-time record. The number of pages in the Federal Register, the document in which all new regulations are published, was 69,688 at the end of 1993. Government spending on regulatory programs was $11.8 billion in 1993 (in 1987 dollars), the highest level ever.
Over the past 20 years only President Reagan was able to curb the regulatory appetite. During his two terms the Federal Register dropped 33,676 pages from Jimmy Carter’s record level of 87,012. Under George Bush, however, after he signed the Clean Air Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Civil Rights Act, the Federal Register grew by 15,000 pages. So far under Bill Clinton, the number has increased another 5,000 thanks to enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the “Motor Voter” Act, re-regulation of the cable industry, and plenty of new environmental rules. If the Clinton Health Security Act had passed, it would have required 818 new regulatory mandates, 2,891 new pages in the Federal Register, and 98,146 federal and state government workers to implement the new mandates.
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