The number and cost of government regulations continued to climb in 2014, intensifying Washington’s control over the economy and Americans’ lives.
The addition of 27 new major rules pushed the tally for the Obama administration’s first six years to 184, with scores of other rules in the pipeline. The cost of just these 184 rules is estimated by regulators to be nearly $80 billion annually, although the actual cost of this massive expansion of the administrative state is obscured by the large number of rules for which costs have not been fully quantified.
The infographic below chronicles the trends in rulemaking activity as featured in “Red Tape Rising,” a new report that The Heritage Foundation will highlight in an event Tuesday with Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and James Lankford, R-Okla.
Infographic designed by Kelsey Harris/Visualsey
