June 22: Cost of Government Day

“Every year on April 15, million of taxpayers across the country file their 1040 forms, and are outraged at how much they have to send to Washington. But what they see is only part of government’s bite. The 1040 form doesn’t include the over $7,000 that the average family must pay due to the cost of federal regulations.

“That’s 20 percent of the average family’s income, just to pay for federal red tape. That’s half of what Americans pay in direct taxes. That’s more that the entire GNP of Canada.

“And the bite is getting bigger. As shown in CEI’s just-released report, ‘Ten Thousand Commandments,’ our annual snapshot of the cost of federal regulation, the pages in the 1998 Federal Register last year totaled over 68,000 pages – the highest level since the Carter Administration – and a 6% jump from 1997.

“Americans today are legitimately outraged at the taxes that their 1040 tells them they have to pay. They should be even more upset at the taxes that it doesn’t tell them about.”

CEI, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group founded in 1984, is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information, please contact Emily McGee, director of media relations, at 202-331-1010, ext. 209.