Study: Regulations Under Obama Cost Households $14,768 Yearly

The latest annual index of federal rules and regulations due this week is expected to show that the amount of red tape in the system has hit a record high and a record cost of $1.8 trillion under the Obama administration.

The 20th anniversary edition of the index, compiled by Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, will show that the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit a peak of 174,545 in 2012, an increase of more than 21 percent during the last decade, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Using government data, Crews estimates that in 2012 the cost of complying and implementing federal rules was more than $1.8 trillion, roughly equal to the entire GDP of Canada, according to the newspaper.

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The costs are built into nearly everything Americans purchase, leading Crews to calculate that the 2012 bill to each American household amounted to approximately $14,768, making the red tape caused by regulations the biggest expense after housing in a typical family budget.

According to Crews, the Obama administration is "in a class by itself" when it comes to implementing so-called "economically significant" rules, or those estimated by the government to cost at least $100 million each. Crews, the Journal reported, says 57 of these major rules were finished in 2012 with another 167 in the works.

Most of them, the Journal noted, were tied to Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank financial bailout law, and EPA guidelines on anti-carbon fuels.