‘Taxpocalypse’ Now

Joe Biden, Undisputed Champion

Of course this item’s headline isn’t about presidential ethics, cognitive strength or fiscal management. But there is at least one category in which our 46th president stands in a class of his own. Recently this column noted that Mr. Biden was on pace to set a record and now he’s done it. At the Competitive Enterprise Institute Wayne Crews reports on the new all-time Beltway leader as measured by a particular metric of federal regulatory activity:

Joe Biden’s administration has set a new Federal Register record with 96,088 pages as of December 3, 2024, surpassing the Obama administration’s 95,894 pages in 2016. With just weeks remaining in the year, the Register—Washington’s daily depository of proposed and final rules—is on track to exceed 100,000 pages for the first time in history…

… Federal Register page counts are a highly imperfect gauge of regulatory burden. Biden’s milestone, though, still underscores the expanding scope of federal intervention. Biden’s policies reflected a sharp departure from Trump-era efforts to streamline regulation instead embracing whole-of-government approaches to climate policy, equity, and other forms of economic and social engineering…

So far in 2024, 2,882 final rules have been issued within those 96,088 pages, including 293 rules deemed significant. Small businesses are notably vulnerable, with 698 rules affecting them—66 of which are deemed significant.

Read more at WSJ