President Donald Trump’s administration had canceled 105 regulatory rules as of November 14, 2017.[1]
This total includes 27 environmental rules, 15 rules related to labor and finance, 16 civil rights rules, 12 healthcare rules, and 12 more rules related to worker and consumer safety.
According to The Washington Post, the administration has at least 33 more regulatory cancellations in the works.[1]
An earlier Number of the Day noted that there has been a 32 percent decline in regulatory rules issued during the first nine months of the Trump administration. Another study indicated that during the Obama administration, new regulations increased annual regulatory costs by $122 billion. Prior to that, the George W. Bush administration increased regulatory costs by $68 billion annually.
The regulatory state has been growing since the 1970s. There are currently 283,996 employees at federal regulatory agencies. Those agencies now have a budget of $70 billion annually. After adjusting for inflation, regulatory spending is nine times as high today as it was in 1970.
1 The Washington Post, "How Trump is rolling back Obama’s legacy," November 14, 2017
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is the author of "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System," "In Search of Self-Governance," and "The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt." Read more reports from Scott Rasmussen — Click Here Now.
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