From The Heartland — Celebrate Small Business Week the Right Way
Small businesses are as American as apple pie — overregulation is still a huge burden that needs to be lifted.
The American Spectator cited the Competitive Enterprise Institute about federal overregulation in not only the immense financial burden however also includes the plethora of rules released by federal agencies causing additional costs detracting the success of small business.
Though the Trump administration’s tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks have provided some relief and a glimmer of hope to small business owners, there are still significant hurdles to overcome. For example, business owners must ensure they comply with all 61,000 pages of the Federal Register, not to mention the leviathan IRS tax code, which requires an army of accountants to navigate.
To operate a small business in the United States, owners must obey tens of thousands of rules, including accounting standards, employment and labor laws, anti-trust laws, advertising and environmental regulations, and privacy laws. Altogether, these rules and regulations cost Americans $1.9 trillion in 2017, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Even worse, CEI identified 97 new laws enacted by Congress and 3,281 new rules issued by agencies in 2017. These laws and regulations cause additional economic costs for small businesses.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) determined “unreasonable government regulations” is the second-largest problem facing small business owners. In NFIB’s 2017 National Small Business poll nearly half of all small business owners reported an increase in regulations; only 2 percent reported a decline.