The Patriot Post® · Newest Obama Regs Cost $110 Billion

The White House’s latest regulatory dump came over the Memorial Day weekend, and thanks to the American Action Forum we now have a price tag: $110 billion. That may not sound like much when we’re used to hearing the word “trillion,” but the economic impacts are anything but trivial. AAF’s Sam Batkins crunched the numbers and has the lowdown: “Once again, there are few surprises in the regulatory agenda. The administration listed 18 new ‘economically significant’ regulations, down from 23 in the previous agenda. It appears that August and October will be busy this year. The administration plans to finalize its greenhouse gas standards for new and existing sources, protections for agricultural workers, and food safety measures. By October, the schedule calls for three final energy efficiency standards, produce safety regulation, and a final ozone rule.” The study contains “an incredible amount of uncertainty,” according to Batkins, because cost estimates on a slew of regulations have yet to be revealed. Making matters worse, the hits keep on coming. “Just this week, the EPA added to the coming pile, saying it wants to regulate commercial airline emissions,” Investor’s Business Daily notes. Regulations already strip nearly $1.9 trillion from the economy annually. What we need are fewer rules, not more burden. That’s the way to truly kickstart America’s sluggish GDP.