President Obama’s promise to cut the paperwork burden on Americans from oppressive federal regulation failed, and instead surged from a total of 8 billion to 11.5 billion hours, or 47 hours for every American adult, more than a week’s work.
The administration has hidden the report for over two years, finally releasing its numbers that were supposed to have been made public annually, according to a new analysis from the American Action Forum’s regulatory watchdog Sam Batkins.
He said most of the burden can be blamed on the Internal Revenue Service and Obamacare.
“For the first time in more than two years, the administration released its count of the cumulative regulatory paperwork burden Americans must confront annually. Known as the ‘Information Collection Budget’, it includes a snapshot of the total paperwork burden, how that burden changed among agencies, and a list of agency violations of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Currently, the cumulative government-wide total is 11.5 billion hours,” he wrote.
The total cost, said the administration, is $1.9 trillion.
The administration had promised to cut red tape, but it has been increasing since 2010 and surged 1.6 billion hours in the last 14 months as the White House has moved to implement several new and costly regulations.
“To put this paperwork growth into context, it would take more than 800,000 employees working full-time (2,000 hours) to complete a year of these new reporting and recordkeeping requirements,” wrote Batkins.
He pointed a finger at the IRS. “Much of this growth can be attributed to the Department of Treasury. At 8 billion hours, largely from IRS regulations, whenever there is a large collection of information, Treasury’s rise will significantly increase the national total as well,” said AAF.
The incoming Trump administration has promised to cut the IRS burden on Americans. It has also pledged to rewrite Obamacare, which Batkins said is also to blame for high amounts of red tape.
He wrote: “According to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, there are 21 paperwork requirements ‘related’ to the ACA. Combined, these collections impose more than 90 million hours of paperwork. From a tax compliance perspective, that’s the equivalent of 45,000 Americans dedicated to the ACA from just Treasury paperwork.
“The HHS has the largest role administering the ACA, and unsurprisingly, its regulatory burden has dramatically increased.”
The full report from Batkins is here.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
