A new analysis released Thursday by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) claims that federal regulations under the Biden administration cost Americans a staggering $2.16 trillion in 2024, effectively saddling households with what the think tank calls a “hidden regulatory tax” of over $16,000.
In its annual report, Ten Thousand Commandments, CEI concluded that these regulatory burdens equate to $16,016 per household. The study estimated that such costs consume roughly 16% of the average household’s income and make up 21% of overall household expenditures.
According to the report, President Joe Biden reversed a number of deregulatory efforts from President Donald Trump’s previous term. CEI wrote that Biden “changed the Office of Management and Budget’s mission away from oversight and toward the promotion of the administration’s regulatory initiatives.”
CEI also argued that lawmakers should be more accountable for the scale of federal regulation, stating, “Congress should be held accountable for such large regulatory actions.”
The study noted a significant uptick in rulemaking activity. In 2024, the Biden administration issued 3,248 final regulations, a substantial increase that brought the total number of pages in the Federal Register to a record-breaking 106,109 — a 19% jump from the previous year. By comparison, CEI said the Trump administration’s 2019 output of 2,964 final rules was the lowest on record.
The report found that President Biden averaged 126 major regulations per year, outpacing President Trump’s average of 86.
When it came to small business regulation, Biden’s administration averaged 846 new rules annually, while Trump’s administration averaged 701.
CEI asserted that the Biden administration applied a sweeping regulatory strategy across all government departments and agencies. “The whole-of-government philosophy advocates using every possible lever of government to advance certain policy objectives. In practice, that means that agencies, instead of being guided solely by their core missions, also pursue goals such as equity, environmental justice, climate change and rallying transformations like the care economy. This management approach consolidates power in Washington, further undermining the federalist system of government,” CEI wrote.
The group added that this wide-ranging regulatory approach is currently being unraveled by the Trump administration as it works to reverse course.
{Matzav.com}