One of the positive developments to come out of the Trump administration was the decline in federal regulations.
While the plan was not perfect, the idea of eliminating two regulations for every new one was at least a step in the right direction.
But President Joe Biden has overturned this method, with the federal regulatory rule book soaring, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
The Biden White House has created 4,429 new rules, up nearly 46% from former President Donald Trump’s final year in office.
“Biden issued fewer rules than Trump did. That would seem counterintuitive, although not inexplicable; it takes time to issue new rules. Still, Biden’s ‘whole of government’ agenda would inevitably make one wonder where all the rules are. Well, it turns out they’re on the newer white-paper compilation charts. While the online database shows 3,257 rules, the document count in the newer roundup is actually 4,429, a 45.8% increase over Trump,” he wrote.
“The implications of all this — while given the current state of transparency, one ought not expect it to be reflected in the online database by year-end 2022, nor even early 2023 — are that the spending and intervention torrent embodied in Biden’s American Rescue Plan ‘infrastructure,’ ‘innovation,’ and ‘inflation’ mega-bills will translate into greater rule counts in coming months and years. If the federal government expands by a large percentage, more rules and sub-regulatory guidance documents and other regulatory dark matter are imminent.”
Here is the chart:
Regulation begets regulation, to paraphrase the great economist Ludwig von Mises.
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