Townhall.com posted an article today about the cost of federal regulation.

The article reports on a study released today:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) put out a study today titled “Ten Thousand Commandments – An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State.”

…The author Wayne Crews, Vice President for Policy at CEI, found that federal regulation cost $1.88 trillion in 2014 in lost economic productivity and high prices. This breaks down to about $14,976 per household and 29% of an average family budget.

Think about it this way. The U.S. economy is expected to produce about $17 trillion this year in output, yet it would be more if the government didn’t hammer the private sector with the hidden tax of regulations. Regulations are exporting jobs from America to countries with fewer regulations.

…The Heritage Foundation released a top 10 worst regulations of 2014 and one example shows local government being the bad guy. Number seven on the Heritage list are regulations governing the ride sharing company Uber. “Uber faces significant hurdles as local regulators try to stop its expansion, claiming that the service is ‘unfair’ to the excessively regulated cab drivers.” Uber is an emerging company that has proven wildly successful, so local governments have used government power to protect cab drivers and to deny consumers cheaper transportation options.

For a number of years, our government has been picking winners and losers. When the government overrides the free market, the consumer loses. That is one reason why your family budget is simply not doing as well as it was a few years ago. Over regulation puts higher prices on both goods and services, as well as an added burden to businesses. If we are fortunate enough to elect a President in 2016 who is not part of the Washington establishment (either Republican or Democrat), many of these regulations will be abolished. If we elect a member of either the Republican or Democrat establishment, we can expect things to get worse.