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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Saturday, May 4, 2024

Biden’s Red-Tape Onslaught

May 3, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Biden has pushed federal spending to record levels and he wants to push taxes to record levels.

He’s also maintained and extended Trump’s protectionist policies.

And we all know about his track record on inflation (he didn’t start the problem, but he did nothing to contain it).

Today, let’s ask what he’s done on regulation.

Unfortunately, the answer is “a lot.” Here’s a chart from American Action Forum, tracking how much new red tape was imposed by the past three president.

Biden is winning on costs and paperwork, which means the American economy is losing.

Here’s some of the accompanying analysis from AAF.


As we have already seen from executive orders and memos, the Biden Administration will surely provide plenty of contrasts with the Trump Administration on the regulatory front. …Since the AAF RegRodeo data extend back to 2005, it is possible to provide weekly updates on how the top-level trends of President Biden’s regulatory record track with those of his two most recent predecessors. …This past week’s regulatory haul has pushed the Biden Administration’s final rule cost tally into truly uncharted territory. …For perspective, if “Biden Administration Regulatory Costs” were a country, its gross domestic product would rank 17th in the world, just behind Indonesia.

Just like with taxes, the cost of red tape is borne by people.

By creating barriers to economic efficiency (what I call an obstacle course), Biden’s regulatory onslaught means that workers receive less income and investors receive lower returns.

The net effect is lower living standards.

For all intents and purposes, Biden wants to copy Europe’s regulatory policy just like he wants to copy Europe’s fiscal policy.

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