Regulatory costs soar: expensive new federal rules.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings

DURING THE last four years, President Barack Obama occasionally has tried to cast himself as a deregulator, or at least as someone interested in slimming down and streamlining federal regulations. But the numbers tell a different story.

In 2011 Obama ordered an administration-wide regulatory review intended to rid the books of "outmoded regulations." Goals included "reducing costs and simplifying and harmonizing rules" as well as achieving regulatory goals in ways that are "more effective or less burdensome?' In 2012 Cass Sunstein, former head of Obama's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, touted another executive order intended to "eliminate unjustified regulatory costs and to reduce burdens" through international regulatory coordination.

Here's what that looks like in practice: In 2012 Sunstein's office wiped regulations imposing a total annual burden of $2.5 billion from agency books. Meanwhile, the administration added $236 billion in new regulations.

That's the finding of a January 2013 report from the American Action Forum (AAF), a conservative policy shop led by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. The report finds that...