Questions

In his State of the Union Address earlier this year, President Obama claimed that his Administration has created fewer regulations than his predecessors.

But a new report issued by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee shows that Obama’s regulations have been more intrusive and have imposed far greater economic costs on businesses and job creators.

In total, The Heritage Foundation has calculated that the Obama administration adopted 106 major regulations in its first three years. That’s nearly four times the 28 major regulations adopted in the first three years of the Bush administration. Those regulations came at a cost of $8.1 billion, compared to the $46 billion imposed under Obama by the same point in his presidency.

The report cites a Gallup poll from earlier this year that found 46 percent of small business owners are not hiring because they are worried about new government regulations.

In addition to current regulations, the report found that proposed regulations continue to generate uncertainty and could result in significant additional costs to the economy.

The EPA is proposing to redefine “solid waste,” removing specific recycling exclusions from current hazardous waste regulations. As a result, the regulations would even apply to in-house recycling intended for internal use, such as scrap metal yards recycling scrap metal. The Business Roundtable estimates the rule will cost more than $100 million annually in documentation and analysis costs, making it more expensive for businesses to recycle.

The first 2 paragraphs of the report:

Rules and red tape imposed by the federal government choke economic expansion and job growth, according to job creators themselves. Despite hearing this message loud and clear, regulations implemented during the Obama Administration have moved aggressively in the opposite direction—the regulatory state continues to grow, adding billions of dollars in compliance costs to businesses and job creators. These costs will ultimately be paid by consumers.

Although Obama Administration officials frequently proclaim it has issued fewer regulations than its predecessors, analysis by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reaches a far different conclusion: the Obama Administration has issued far more of the most expensive group of regulations with a higher overall economic cost.