Federal regulations added an estimated total cost of a whopping $2.155 trillion for Americans in 2024, according to a report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released Thursday.
The large amount, which includes the calculated impact of federal regulations as well as compliance costs, results in a “hidden tax” of $16,016 per American household each year, CEI’s annual “Ten Thousand Commandments” report found. This “hidden” regulatory tax consumes 16% of household income and 21% of household expenses, according to the report.
“Off-budget or not, these regulatory costs drag down the economy, much as overspending can,” Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., CEI’s Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies and the report’s author, wrote. “Just as consumers shoulder much of the corporate income tax and tariff burden, regulatory compliance costs and mandates borne by businesses percolate through the economy and materialize as higher prices, lost jobs, and lower output.”
“Record federal debt is contributing to record-setting regulatory burdens,” Crews Jr. wrote further. “While new spending programs show up in budget figures, new regulations requiring the private sector to do similar things at its own expense do not. Off-budget regulations have grown common despite congressional attempts to limit them.”
CEI’s report also noted that while the federal government publicly discloses its fiscal costs — such as expenses incurred from spending on various programs and services — it does not disclose most of its regulatory costs.
Former President Joe Biden oversaw a large number of regulatory costs, adding an average of 846 rules annually in the Federal Register that affected small business during his term, according to the report. Comparatively, the Obama administration introduced an average of 694 rules annually, compared to 701 rules annually during the first Trump administration, the report found.
Some economic experts have claimed that the Biden administration’s enormous spending exacerbated high inflation rates during Biden’s presidency. The U.S. national debt reached $36.22 trillion as of Thursday. Meanwhile, the national deficitwas $1.31 trillion.
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