The Patriot Post® · 1.5B More Hours of Paperwork

One-and-a-half billion hours of burdensome paperwork has been added by the regulatory state since 2010, according to an analysis by American Action Forum, which pegs the additional economic cost at $43.8 billion. The report finds, “In 2010, the nation’s total paperwork burden was 8.8 billion hours; today, it’s more than 10.3 billion hours, an increase of 1.5 billion hours, despite the attempt at regulatory reform. For perspective, it would take 786,000 individuals working full-time to complete the new paperwork added since 2010.” Recall that Obama tasked agencies with reducing this workload via executive order, though the results have evidently gone backward like the rest of his agenda. Two EPA proposals alone are estimated to cost $12.3 billion, wiping out the $10 billion purportedly “saved” in other areas.