On Regulatory Reform

Today, Professor Cass Sunstein, once again took to the editorial pages to tout President Obama’s attempt a regulatory reform.  The op-ed was full of big numbers, millions of reduced paperwork hours, billions of dollars saved.  Great for making headlines, but how do these numbers compare to the total regulatory burden? 

• Sunstein: 55 million fewer hours of IRS Compliance.
• Reality: there are more than 7.6 billion total IRS paperwork hours.  This proposed reduction is less than one percent of the total burden.
• Sunstein:  HHS rules that could save $4 billion over the next five years.
• Reality: private-sector compliance costs from the Affordable Care Act could cost more than $8 billion, and unfunded mandates are projected to cost states more than $2 billion.
• Sunstein: EPA rule could save $126 million annually.
• Reality: today EPA proposed a rule aimed at the natural gas industry that will cost more than $1.5 billion.
• Sunstein: heavy-duty truck rule to save $50 billion in fuel costs.
• Reality: the “annual costs associated with the program” will eclipse $47 billion during implementation, raise truck prices, and possibly “increase traffic congestion, motor vehicle accidents, and highway noise.”
• Sunstein: $10 billion in expected reductions during the next five years.
• Reality: a drop in the bucket.  For example, EPA’s proposed Toxics Rule could cost $10.9 billion and 45,000 lost jobs.

In the end, if the current pace of new burdens continues, this effort can be rightly judged as a deregulatory shell masquerading as substantive reform.  Maybe it’s time for Professor Sunstein to write another op-ed.