Red Tapeworm 2014: The Federal Government “Eats” 31 Percent Of The U.S. Economy

by Wayne Crews on May 21, 2014

This is Part 6 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State (2014 Edition).

The United States Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates 2013 GDP of $16.797 trillion. The total regulatory cost placeholder of $1.863 trillion I’ve compiled in Tip of the Costberg is equivalent to 11.1 percent of that amount.

 

So federal regulation “eats” 11 percent of GDP. And there’s more to it since Costberg doesn’t (indeed cannot) capture every compliance cost and economic impact of government intervention nor every adventure in cronyism.

Combining regulatory costs with federal FY 2013 outlays of $3.454 trillion (refer back to Red Tapeworm Part 4)) indicates that the federal government’s overall share of the economy is $5.317 trillion, or 31.6 percent….To Read More….