The Patriot Post® · Regulations Cost Us How Much?

On the heels of more disappointing GDP numbers comes even more data on Barack Obama’s economic malaise. Obama loves to remind us that he “inherited” a recession, which is true to a certain extent, but he somehow always leaves out the part that Democrats policies created it in the first place. And as is always the case with leftists, they create problems with government and promise to then solve those problems with … more government.

Such has been the case for the last eight years. Obama’s regulatory bonanza has certainly put a drag on the U.S. economy. According to a new report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, “The economy would have been about 25 percent larger than it was in 2012 if regulations had been frozen at levels observed in 1980. The difference between observed and counterfactually simulated GDP in 2012 is about $4 trillion, or $13,000 per capita.” In other words, Obama “saved” the economy by costing us $4 trillion.

On top of that, Investor’s Business Daily writes, “[H]ad Obama’s recovery — which is now in its 28th quarter — been as robust as the average of the past 10 recoveries, the nation’s economy would be $2.2 trillion — with a ‘t’ — bigger than it is today.” But it couldn’t be average when Obama was regulating it to death. Voters should remember that in November before we elect Hillary Clinton to continue Obama’s disastrous economic policies.