Regulation Nightmare Killing Companies and Jobs

Bottom line here, cut the red tape and save billions of dollars which equates to thousands of new jobs. Isn't this what we all want to solve our financial problems? Maybe not.

Federal Regulations Cost Billions
Source: Steve Stanek, "Federal Regs: 231 Billion Dollars, 133 Million Paperwork Hours," Heartland Institute, January 4, 2012. "2011: The Year in Regulation," American Action Forum, January 2, 2012.

In yet another year of growing federal regulations, businesses faced enormous amounts of economic loss and wasted man-hours in compliance costs. A recent study by the American Action Forum found that these costs are concentrated strongly in only a small number of onerous regulations, says Steve Stanek, a research fellow at the Heartland Institute.

According to the study, federal regulations in 2011 added more than $231 billion in regulatory costs to private businesses and state and local governments.

The CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards for light-duty vehicles had the highest single price tag with $141.4 billion in compliance costs.

Lost work hours associated with abiding by new regulations totaled an outstanding 133 million hours of paperwork.

Additional employee rights notifications will cost 12 million hours.

Medicaid eligibility changes under the Affordable Care Act will cost 11.07 million hours.

A new railroad conductor certification program will cost 10.99 million hours.

While these three are, according to the study, the most costly in terms of lost hours, they are only a small portion of the total regulatory burden. However, something can be said for the progress that was made in 2011 over 2010.

While the Obama administration published 82,480 pages of regulations in 2010, this figure dropped to 78,464 pages in 2011. Obama's Executive Order 13563, which called for an analysis of "outdated, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome" regulations, finalized $187 million in deregulatory actions in 2011.

Nevertheless, an administration that is serious about jumpstarting an economy and encouraging greater employment will do away with onerous regulations at a greater pace.