Forbes
On Independence Day — How Free Are You, Really?
As reported in Reason by Ronald Bailey, a recent study finds that “Federal Regulations Have Made You 75 percent Poorer.” The claim is that GDP…
Forbes
On Independence Day — How Free Are You, Really?
As reported in Reason by Ronald Bailey, a recent study finds that “Federal Regulations Have Made You 75 percent Poorer.” The claim is that GDP…
The American Spectator
Twenty Years of Non-Stop Regulation
Twenty years ago saw the release of the first edition of Ten Thousand Commandments, an annual report that tracks the cost and scope of the…
Washington Post
A mandate that is off the rails
Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has recently published his “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State.” This year’s…
Investor's Business Daily
America’s Soaring Regulations Cost $1.8 Trillion A Year
Politicians from both parties routinely tout the need to roll back unnecessary regulations. But how much overregulation is there exactly? Most politicians have no idea,…
Blog
How to Have Enough Water for Everybody
Last week I testified in the Water and Power Subcommittee in the House of Representatives (hearing linked…
Comment
Testimony by Wayne Crews on the Water Desalination Act of 1996
CEI’s Wayne Crews testified before the House Subcommittee on Water and Power on Thursday, May 23, 2013 on the subject of the Reauthorization of Water…
One News Now
CEI report: Uncle Sam loves his regulations
Americans spent an estimated $1.8 trillion in 2012 to comply with federal regulations, reports the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The public policy organization has just released…
Breitbart
Cost of Complying with U.S. Regulations Higher Than Canada’s GDP
$1.8 trillion buys a lot of red tape. That’s how much the federal regulatory machine is costing Americans each year, according to the…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2013
The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering. Yet the government's reach extends well beyond taxation and spending. Federal regulations cost hundreds of…
Daily Caller
The Towering Federal Register
This week marks the publication of the 20th anniversary edition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the federal regulatory state, Ten Thousand Commandments.
Products
Ten Thousand Commandments 2013: A Fact Sheet
Full Document Available in PDF 1. This is the 20th anniversary of Ten Thousand Commandments. In that time, 81,883 final rules have…
Wall Street Journal
Red Tape Record Breakers
President Obama is opposing a bill passed by the House last week that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to better measure the costs…
Blog
Costs Rise In Obama’s New 2013 Draft Report To Congress On The Benefits And Costs Of Federal Regulations
Last year, the Obama Office of Management and Budget’s 2012 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal…
Forbes
Barack Obama’s BRAIN Initiative Vs. Bioengineered Gills And One-Wheeled SegWays
In a widely reported announcement, President Barack Obama outlined a major research initiative to map the human brain, building on…
Comment
Reply comments to FCC on AT&T petition
CEI and other free market groups on February 25, 2013 urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant a request to relax antiquated regulatory barriers.
Townhall
Government Spending Hurts People
Every day Americans from all walks of life deal with petty tyrannies and worse from federal bureaucrats. And the economic costs of complying with all…
Forbes
Obama’s SOTU: A Campaign Speech That Erodes The Power Of The Citizenry
Every year legislators and bureaucrats disgorge new laws and regulations which discourage job creation. Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has pointed to…
Blog
State Of The Union? Try “Over-Regulated”
In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama cannot be expected to pledge to roll back government in any manner whatsoever, a…
The American Spectator
The Anti-Democracy Index
The United States Constitution gives “all legislative powers herein granted” to Congress. Neither the judicial nor the executive branch has the power to make laws,…
Blog
The Cost Of Enforcing Government Regulation
Regulatory cost estimates of around $1.8 trillion encompass compliance costs paid by the public plus economic drag. But but those estimates do not include the…
Washington Examiner
Out of Control: 47 New Regulations for Every New Law
According to a new Competitive Enterprise Institute study provided to Secrets, agency bureaucrats have finalized 47 times more new rules…
Blog
The Anti-Democracy Index
In compiling Ten Thousand Commandments over the years (alas, February 8 is going to mark 20 years of this project) it…
Blog
How Much Does Federal Paperwork And Tax Compliance Cost?
Regulations notwithstanding, the off-budget costs of tax compliance for individuals and businesses are said to account for most of the federal paperwork burden, although there…
Blog
Federal Regulation Update: 224 Economically Significant Rules In The Pipeline
The federal government's Fall Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions finally appeared the Friday before Christmas (the Spring 2012…
Blog
Where Did All The Environmental Protection Agency Rules Go?
The Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations has always been squishy and has never bound agencies to issue solely the rules contained within; but the decline…
Statesman
Senators, protect us from the EPA
According Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, President Obama issued 953 “major regulations” (meaning regulations with a cost of $100 million or more, or…
Forbes
Federal Regulation: The Costs of Benefits
The premise that national top-down regulation of the economy brings substantial net benefits dominates public policy. But forget the philosophical debate over laissez-faire vs. the…
Blog
Settlement: FTC Ends Google Antitrust Investigation
Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared Google of accusations of "Search Bias," and inappropriately harming rivals. The investigation lasted nearly…
Blog
2012’s Year-End Regulatory Report Card
Both 2011 and 2010 finished with over 81,000 pages in the Federal Register, as tallied in Ten Thousand Commandments. These were the highest page counts…
Forbes
Happy New Year? Fiscal Cliff, Meet The Costberg
How the largest government on earth plans to expand our liberties in the new year of 2013 by forcing “the rich” to pay somebody’s idea…
Washington Times
Federal rules cost $10,000 per employee
What do the Progressive Policy Institute, former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, former presidential candidate Herman Cain and the Competitive Enterprise Institute have…
Forbes
Lesson From The Google Case: There Is No Such Thing As Antitrust Policy
“Don’t get Scroogled‘” Seen that one yet? It’s a Microsoft Bing TV ad criticizing Google‘s search results for causing a kitchen fire. It’s cute, emblematic…
Forbes
Regulation Vs. Jobs: Assessing The Employment Impact Of Rules and Regulations
One might think there’s some official acceptance that the thousands of regulations issued annually in Washington have a dampening impact on job creation. But no;…
Blog
Beyond The Fiscal Cliff, Bipartisan Regulatory Reform
If I'm reading this right, the Progressive Policy Institute wants to roll back some over-regulation. It's not clear how much, but it does seem to…
Forbes
President Obama’s Hidden Tax
Regulations are often called a hidden tax; but in President Obama’s case, it’s literally true. Despite the written commitment to transparency and…
Reason
Yes, Romney and Obama, Government Regulation Encourages Outsourcing
Last month, CEI's Wayne Crews told the House Judiciary Committee: “For the broader ‘significant’ category of rules (economically significant rules plus rules considered officially significant…
US News
Red Tape Is Strangling the Recovery
Last year alone, federal agencies issued 3,807 final rules according to data compiled by Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Daily Caller
Missing: Regulatory transparency
Every spring and fall, as certain as the turning of the seasons, the General Services Administration’s Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) issues a new edition…
Blog
Where Is Obama’s Unified Agenda Of Federal Regulations?
Two primary federal documents by which we judge the regulatory record of the administration are missing in action this year. We at least can say,…
Fox Business
Winning the Presidential Debate with Regulation
Presidential debates are where the candidates try to show the average likely voter they know what he or she wants better than the other guy.
Washington Times
Regulations and Rules Equal Broken Government
When President Obama and Mitt Romney are jousting about taxes during their Wednesday night debate, one or both candidates might correctly point out that the…
Washington Examiner
$1.8 trillion shock: Obama regs cost 20-times estimate
From Paul Bedard's column in The Washington Examiner: Current federal regulations plus those coming under Obamacare will cost American taxpayers and businesses $1.8…
Investor's Business Daily
Federal Agencies Should Stop Using Cost-Benefit Analyses
Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases data on how much tax revenue it takes in. It never argues that the nation's tax burden is…
Denver Post
A victory for e-book buyers
From The Denver Post: The settlement orders the publishers to end their contracts with Apple and allow retailers to set their own prices…
Forbes
The Path To Job Creation Runs Through Regulatory Reform
From Ed Pozzuoli's column in Forbes: According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews, regulation’s “hidden cost” has ballooned to $1.8 trillion on…
Blog
Science And Technology Policy And The Democratic Convention
Now it's the Democrats' turn to gather for their convention in Charlotte and one element of the platform in common with basic Republican philosophy is…
Barron's
Laws Gone Wild? Drowning in Regulation
Barron's highlights Wayne Crews's study on the federal regulatory burden. According to a forthcoming report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute called Tip of…
Forbes
The Least Sexy But Most Urgent Economic Reform Remains Ignored In The Presidential Campaign
Despite the federal government’s unabated growth, the most significant domestic policy landscape change has been shutting off the the power to the Social Security third…
Washington Times
Season for Relief From Big Government
The good news is that this year’s budget deficit will be half a trillion less than last year’s. The bad news is that it still…
The American Spectator
Obama v. Job Creation
From Doug Bandow's op-ed in The American Spectator: Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced the latest edition of his…
Business Week
Obama Shouldn’t Embellish His Small Business Record
From Scott Shane's article in Bloomberg Businessweek: Now consider regulation. The National Economic Council report says that the president has cut “red tape”…
The American Spectator
Washington’s Ten Thousand Commandments
Deficits, taxes, and spending are the defining issues of the 2012 campaign. Regulation deserves a seat at the table, too. The federal government spent $3.6…
Oil & Gas Journal
US Regulatory Costs Amplify Pressure of the Mammoth Deficit
From Bob Tippee's column in The Oil & Gas Journal: An annual report published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates the cost of…
Blog
Regulating Obama’s Regulators — And Those of Future Presidents
This month, President Obama released a new Executive Order building upon and making permanent the quest for regulatory savings in his…
Hawaii Reporter
Grassroot Perspective: Regulators Run Wild, the West Side’s Story, and More
From Malia Hill's column in The Hawaii Reporter: Credit must be given to whoever thought up the title for the new report on…
Study
Ten Thousand Commandments 2012
The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering. Yet the government’s reach extends well beyond the taxes Washington collects and its deficit spending…
Hawaii Reporter
How a Cybersecurity Protection Bill Might Differ From CISPA
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on “CISPA,” the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act this week. Whatever advocates’ frustrations, it’s not clear…
Blog
How to Fix U.S. Water Policy? Less Government, More Market Pricing
Late last week I received an invitation to testify in the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Natural…
Comment
Testimony on Reauthorization of Water Desalination Act of 2011
Full Document Available in PDF Separation of State and Water Water availability is a core infrastructure concern; today, that specific legislative…
Hawaii Reporter
Why Is Apple Getting Cored in Washington?
What should be the price of the paperless word, now that books are going digital in one of the most important transformations in history? Steve…
Hawaii Reporter
Free-Market Environmentalism? It’ll Never Fly, Orville!
The week before Easter I gave a brief speech at the Association for Private Enterprise Education, a foundation dedicated to assembling scholars, professors and students…
Hawaii Reporter
How to Regulate the Federal Communications Commission
The House of Representatives just passed H.R. 3309, the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act, in an attempt to normalize the FCC‘s propensity to regulate…
Hawaii Reporter
Why Regulations Aren’t Good–Again
The first week of Spring is also “hooray, regulation” week at the White House. Regulatory policy chief Cass Sunstein, one of the most accomplished and…
Daily Caller
Dem. Governor Claims Fewer Regulations Under Obama Than Under Bush
From Neil Monro's article in The Daily Caller: In his 2012…
Daily Caller
How to Swap the Obama Budget for an Optimistic Economic Growth Agenda
New spending in President Obama’s $3.8 trillion fiscal year 2013 budget would increase investments in education, manufacturing and R&D, transportation projects, electric vehicle incentives and…
Daily Caller
The Burden of Federal Rules: Our Other Trillion Dollar Debt
During the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama ridiculed regulations like one designating spilled milk an “oil,” and exclaimed, “In fact, I’ve approved…
Daily Caller
Who’s the Bigger Regulator: Bush or Obama?
During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama got applause for acknowledging that some federal regulations are outdated, unnecessary or costly. He…
Daily Caller
President Obama’s State of the Union? Hyper-Regulated
The 2012 State of the Union Address ought to address the Mistakes of the Union when it comes to over-regulation of…
Daily Caller
Obama is Ignoring His Own Jobs Council Recommendations
The Daily Caller discusses the federal regulatory burden with Wayne Crews. An analysis of just this year’s new regulations — and we’re only…
Canada Free Press
The U.S. Is on a Suicide Watch
The Canada Free Press discusses the costs of federal regulation with Wayne Crews. In April 2011, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
Record Red Tape
Over at Big Government today I noted the Federal Register of 2011 has almost reached the level of last year’s record. Given that 2011’s…
Canada Free Press
Another Record-Breaking Federal Register? Federal Regulations Surge in 2011
The Federal Register is the daily depository of all proposed and final rules and regulations, as well as presidential documents, executive orders, agency internal…
Orange County Register
Consumers Lose in Blocked Cellphone Merger
The Orange County Register discusses antitrust regulation on digital companies with Wayne Crews. The opposite is true. "One of the worst aspects of this…
Orange County Register
Government Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Itself
News Release
Senators Push for Antitrust Investigation Into Google
Washington, D.C., December 20, 2011—Yesterday, U.S. Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT) urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch a thorough antitrust…
Orange County Register
Grinches and Scrooges Dislike Facebook This Christmas
Seems it’s time once again to act surprised that Facebook is a social network. Surely you’ve noticed the “Sponsored Stories” ads on Facebook, noting that…
Orange County Register
Idaho Reps. Simpson, Labrador Hail House Passage of Regulatory Reform Bill
Orange County Register
Without REINS It Pours: A Christmas Wish For Sane Government
This year, Congress has passed and the president has signed into law 39 pieces of legislation by my quick count. They’re representatives, elected precisely…
Orange County Register
Lawless Net Neutrality vs. the “Resolution of Disapproval”
Today, the U.S. Senate takes up S.J.Res.6, the FCC Internet and Broadband Resolution of Disapproval, for up to four hours of debate. The controversy…
Orange County Register
Reforming the FCC’s Regulatory Process
Orange County Register
Regulations Are The Boot On Hiring’s Neck
RealClear Markets
Yes, Regulation Does Keep Unemployment High
When regulations make hiring employees more expensive, companies won't hire as many of them. It's a simple truth. But it is an inconvenient one…
RealClear Markets
Flat Tax This: Regulations Are the Boot On Hiring’s Neck
It’s almost 2012, and President Obama still wants a half trillion more from you for jobs spendulus. I’m waiting for Rod Serling to explain this…
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
House Republicans Work To Reduce The Burdens Stifling Growth For Businesses Small and Large
Bloomberg
Obama Wrote Fewer Rules Than Bush, Cost More
Bloomberg references Wayne Crews's study on the federal regulatory burden. The administration has 219 major rules under consideration, up from 137 in 2005,…
Bloomberg
RedBlueAmerica: Is ‘Regularity Uncertainly’ Holding Back U.S. Economy?
Study
The Other National Debt Crisis
Runaway federal regulation represents the biggest threat to our economy today. To address the problem, lawmakers first need to define it and quantify its costs.
Bloomberg
Time Out for Federal Regulation
At the moment, the Federal Register stands at 61,247 pages–for 2011 alone. You can see the Code of Federal Regulations from space. Assuming this perturbs…
Fox News
Eight Ways to Keep People Out of Work
Fox News cites Wayne Crews's article on the cost of regulatory burden to make the case that ignoring the costs of regualtion will keep peolple…
For Construction Pros
NRMCA: President’s Jobs Plan At Odds With Administration Regulatory Action
For Construction Pros discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Highlighting the magnitude of numerous new regulations, this…
For Construction Pros
Google And The Antitrust Case Against Antitrust
Now that the economy has recovered to robust health and unemployment is back below 5%, the U.S. Senate has ample time and resources to spend…
Fox News
Regulation Nation: As Firms Grow, Regs Follow
Fox News highlights Wayne Crews's annual report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. In his yearly report, Ten Thousand Commandments: An…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
GOP Attack on Regulations Starting This Week
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch discusses Wayne Crews's report on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Complaints about government overreach are not new,…
House Oversight Committee
Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform
House Oversight Committee
How to Transcend Post-9/11 Homeland Insecurity
Is “Elevated” worse than “High,” or is it the other way around? Hell, I can’t remember. Need the iPhone app for that I guess.
House Oversight Committee
Nice Talk. When’s the Jobs Speech?
Hauling the United States Senate and a reluctant House together to listen to you on NFL kickoff night–when it’s not even State of the…
House Oversight Committee
Jobs Speech Won’t Do the Job
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his own jobs agenda this week in anticipation of President Obama’s Thursday address to Congress. The most important idea is…
House Oversight Committee
Obama’s Jobs Agenda: An Infrastructure Bank that Robs You
I stopped by our bank Friday to get something notorized, and, damn, they were all out of free Jolly Ranchers. For a moment, I’d forgotten…
Forbes
Stimulating Demand Misses the Point
A top summer’s-end story on the Drudge Report laments Ben Bernanke’s inferences that the air is pretty much out of the Federal Reserve balloon with…