An Executive Order Has Added $10.2 Billion in Costs to Economy

An executive order issued by President Barack Obama that was designed to “cut red tape” has added $10.2 billion in regulatory costs to the economy, according to a new report.

Tuesday was the third anniversary of Executive Order 13563, prompting the American Action Forum to examine the effects of the order. It was intended to reduce “redundant, inconsistent, or overlapping” regulations.

The order was hailed as “unprecedented” by the president and former Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) administrator Cass Sunstein. However, Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at American Action Forum, found that the action was hardly unique and has had the opposite effect of its intended purpose.“Has Washington actually cut red tape? On net, final rules from Order 13563 have addedmore than $10.2 billion in costs, mostly from new regulations labeled as ‘retrospective,’” Batkins said. “Final rules have cut 7.9 million hours of paperwork, but Dodd-Frank and the Affordable Care Act have easily outpaced those deregulatory gains.”

The “deregulatory measures” resulting from the executive order actually add over $10 billion in costs to the economy. For example, a final rule imposing energy standards for transformers carries a $5.22 billion cost to comply and 58,320 hours of paperwork.

Taken with the proposed regulations under the executive order, the total burden to the economy would reach $13.7 billion.

President Obama promised that the order would reduce paperwork in a January 2011Wall Street Journal editorial.

“We’re also getting rid of absurd and unnecessary paperwork requirements that waste time and money,” he wrote. “We’re looking at the system as a whole to make sure we avoid excessive, inconsistent, and redundant regulation.”

The order has added 1.5 billion hours of paperwork to comply with its regulations. “As for the aggregate level of red tape, in fiscal year 2010, the federal government imposed 8.8 billion hours of paperwork,” the report said. “Today, that figure is 10.3 billion hours, a 17 percent increase, despite this ‘unprecedented reform.’”

“It would take more than 750,000 employees working full-time to complete the new annual paperwork added since 2010,” Batkins said.

Credit to The Washington Free Beacon