“President Trump is the least regulatory president since Ronald Reagan. His administration has only proposed 1,241 rules, 13 percent less than Barack Obama’s first year, 42 percent lower than George W. Bush’s, and 72 percent lower than Bill Clinton’s,” reports a new analysis by Wayne Crews, vice president of policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The president, he said, prefers to regulate bureaucrats rather than the public.
The Federal Register — which literally contains government agency rules and notices, now stands at 45,678 pages. Last year at this time, then-President Barack Obama’s Federal Register contained 67,900 pages, and ultimate ended up with 97,110 pages for 2016, an “all-time record,” Mr. Crews says.
“Trump’s focus on tax reform and cutting red tape is exceptionally good news for consumers, businesses and the economy. In recent years, I’ve estimated the baseline for the U.S. federal regulatory burden has amounted to nearly $2 trillion annually. This amounts to a hidden tax of nearly $15,000 per household in a given year,” he adds.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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