“I’ve never seen anything like this.” — Donald Kenkel, Cornell University. Last week, the New York Times discovered that President Donald Trump was serious when he promised to liberate the economy from the oppressive weight of the regulatory state, describing it as “deregulation on a mass scale.”
Cornell’s Donald Kenkel, who was chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the first Trump administration, told the Times that “It’s going on much more quietly than some of the other fireworks we’re seeing, but it will have great impact.”
Great, indeed. In both senses of the word.
Gutting the regulatory state would free up massive amounts of pent-up economic energy, raise standards of living, lower inflation, and sharply cut the deficit, without unduly harming anyone (except busybody bureaucrats).
It’s hard to fathom just how gargantuan and intrusive the regulatory state has become over the past 100 years. Even the Times seems surprised, noting that “more than 400 federal agencies … regulate almost every aspect of American life.”
But that barely scratches the surface. Thursday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released its annual “10,000 Commandments” report, which tracks the regulatory Leviathan. CEI calculates that the annual cost of complying with federal regulations is now $2.155 trillion.
Let’s put that in some context.
- That’s nearly four times what corporations pay in federal income taxes.
- It’s the equivalent of a $16,061 hidden tax on every U.S. household, notes CEI. That’s more than the average household pays for food, or health care, or transportation, or clothes.
- The Federal Register, where all federal rules and regulations are printed, now takes more than 106,000 pages to hold the 98 million words issued by unelected bureaucrats.
- If U.S. regulations were a country, it would be the world’s 8th-largest in the world — bigger than Canada.
Trump tried to weed out some of the regulatory underbrush in his first term, but he got a late start, and Joe Biden reversed course on many of the gains Trump managed. This time, Trump is better prepared, better armed, and far more aggressive.
Normally, eliminating a regulation is a cumbersome process that requires a federal agency to write an entirely new rule justifying why it’s getting rid of the old one. The process can take years and guarantees legal challenges.
Trump doesn’t want to wait that long. He directed federal agencies to produce a list by this week of regulations they want to eliminate, and plans to employ “a set of novel legal strategies … to simply repeal or just stop enforcing regulations,” as the Times puts it.
“They believe that the rapid repeal of some rules — and the stop-work order on enforcing others — will quickly and permanently uproot a vast network of regulations that many see as a safety net, but that they view as a drag on industry,” the Times reports. “Experts say there has never been such an immediate and comprehensive strategy to so quickly erase or freeze this many rules that are woven throughout so many dimensions of the American economy and daily life.”
If Trump succeeds, the economic impact will be immediate and profound. Research by the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that just freezing existing rules in place would boost economic growth, lower inflation, and cut the deficit over the next 10 years by more than $1 trillion.
“The potential economic and fiscal benefits (of rolling back regulations) are substantial,” the report notes.
But if Trump succeeds in pulling regulations out by their roots, it will be up to Congress to poison the soil so a future president can’t just replant them.
The 10,000 Commandments report includes a host of reforms that lawmakers need to pass to permanently dismantle the regulatory state.
These include:
- Terminate departments, agencies, commissions, and programs that no longer serve a legitimate purpose so they can no longer issue regulations.
- Require congressional approval for major rules.
- Increase regulatory transparency to the public, such as with a regulatory “report card.”
- Put sunset dates on all new regulations.
Democrats and the mainstream press will scream bloody murder. Ignore them. The regulatory state must be killed if a thriving economy is ever to live.
Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day – without fear or favor.
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TIPP Takes
Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, And More
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The report, released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says Ukraine's military expenditure in 2024 was $64.7 billion, some 34 percent of GDP. But this was less than half of Russia's estimated spending.
SIPRI said Russia's spending was about 7 percent of GDP and rose year-on-year by 38 percent, compared to a Ukrainian increase of just 2.9 percent.
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The Kremlin rejected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for a 30-day cease-fire after the Ukrainian leader criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a three-day halt in their war to coincide with annual Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.
The unilateral mini-truce would take place on May 8-10 as Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Zelenskyy questioned the need to wait until then for a cease-fire, saying it was a move "just to provide Putin with silence for his parade.
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“We all want this war to end in a fair way – with no rewards for Putin, especially no land,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via videoconference at a summit organized by Poland.
The comment came amid reports the United States suggested to freeze the front line and accept the Russian control of the Crimean peninsula, which it seized in 2014, something Zelenskyy balks at. President Donald Trump said Sunday he believed the Ukrainian leader might concede the Black Sea peninsula as part of a settlement.
4. France Accuses Russian Intelligence Of Repeated Cyber Attacks Since 2021 - Reuters
France’s foreign ministry explicitly accused Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency of mounting cyber attacks on a dozen entities, including ministries, defense firms, and think tanks, since 2021 in an attempt to destabilize France.
The accusations, leveled at GRU unit APT28, which officials said was based in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, are not the first by a Western power, but it is the first time Paris has blamed the Russian state based on its intelligence.
5. Bessent Warns: China Could Lose 10 Million Jobs From Tariffs - TIPP Insights
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says U.S. tariff strategy is twofold: strike fair deals with trading partners while using revenue to potentially lower income taxes. Echoing Trump’s “external revenue service” concept, Bessent said tariff income could help eliminate federal income taxes for Americans.
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The move by the country’s Ministry of Commerce would seem to indicate an olive branch of sorts. It comes days after Chinese airlines rejected taking delivery of any new jets from U.S. planemaker Boeing Co.
Officials in Beijing acknowledged that tariff hikes have disrupted the global air transport market, and both Chinese airlines and Boeing have been severely affected. As a result, China hopes the U.S. can create a stable and predictable environment for normal trade and investment activities, according to the statement.
7. Chinese Man Who Displayed Pro-Democracy Banners In Detention: Sources - RFA
Chinese authorities have detained a young man for unfurling pro-democracy banners this month at an overpass in Chengdu in southwest China – a rare form of public protest that is punishable as a criminal offence, sources told Radio Free Asia.
Authorities are investigating whether Mei Shilin, 27, had any overseas connections and have taken criminal detention measures against him, said the two sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity fearing reprisals.
8. Hong Kong Frees Four Pro-Democracy Lawmakers Who Completed Jail Terms - BBC
The released four former opposition lawmakers were among dozens of pro-democracy leaders jailed under the city's controversial National Security Law (NSL).
The four - Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan - had pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to four years and two months behind bars in November. They were released because the fact they had been in prison since their arrests in 2021 was taken into account when calculating their sentence.
9. Mexico Agrees To Transfer More Water To U.S. - UPI
The 1944 Water Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico states that the U.S. is obligated to deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually to Mexico from the Colorado River. In return Mexico will deliver to the U.S. a minimum of 350,000 acre-feet of water each year.
Mexico has only delivered less than 500,000 acre-feet of water since October 2020, attracting the anger of President Donald Trump, who earlier this month threatened to impose tariffs and potentially sanctions against Mexico until it fulfilled its treaty obligations.
10. Mark Carney’s Liberals Win Canada Election - TIPP Insights
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals retained power in Canada’s election but fell short of the majority he had hoped to strengthen his hand in tariff negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The result is a stunning turnaround for the Liberal Party, which was trailing in the polls just three months ago before Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as leader and U.S. President Trump started threatening tariffs.
10. Israeli Intelligence Chief Ronan Bar Quits Weeks After Netanyahu Ordered His Firing - UPI
Israel's head of domestic intelligence, Ronan Bar, announced his resignation five weeks after his firing by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was immediately blocked by the Supreme Court.
Netanyahu persuaded his cabinet to fire Bar on March 21 on the grounds that he no longer trusted him in the wake of an internal report in which Shin Bet admitted it had failed to prevent the Oct. 7 attacks. The High Court of Justice immediately issued an injunction, blocking the dismissal of Bar who was in the midst of a corruption investigation dubbed "Qatargate."
11. U.S. Companies To Help Poland Build Its First Nuclear Power Plant - UPI
The U.S. Department of Energy announced that an agreement has been signed that will allow Poland to construct its first AP1000 nuclear power plant.
The AP1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and produced by Westinghouse Electric. It is a pressurized water reactor designed to be lower cost. The signing of the Engineering Development Agreement (EDA) is part of a larger nuclear energy security deal worth tens of billions of dollars to build large-scale civil nuclear reactors in Poland.
12. Modi Gives Indian Military ‘Operational Freedom’ To Respond To Kashmir Attack: Source - AFP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told army and security chiefs in a closed-door meeting that the armed forces had the “complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing of our response to the terror attack on civilians in Kashmir,” the senior government source said.
Last week, Modi vowed to pursue those who carried out the attack in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam in Kashmir, and those who had supported it.
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Global military spending rose to $2.72 trillion in 2024 – up 9.4% on 2023, and the steepest year-on-year rise since the end of the Cold War, according to a new think tank report.
Data from a leading conflict think tank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), indicates that expenditures increased most rapidly in the Middle East and Europe—the latter fuelled by the war in Ukraine and doubts over U.S. commitments to the NATO alliance.
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The massive blackout that prompted traffic chaos in the southern European countries is mostly over. The cause of the outage is still unclear.
Portugal's operator REN said the country's entire grid was "stabilized" early on Tuesday. In Spain, grid operator Red Electrica said around 99.16% of the electricity supply was back online as of 6 a.m. (0400 GMT).
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The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin (BTC) Trust ETF (IBIT) saw $970.9 million in inflows, marking its second-largest net inflow since launching in January 2024, according to Farside data.
The rise comes alongside a 7.2% rise in BTC over the past seven days with it now trading at $94,900.
16. Ultra-Processed Foods Tied To 124,000 Premature Deaths Over 2 Years In U.S., Study Finds - UPI Health
The study's authors also analyzed data on ultra-processed food consumption from seven other countries, concluding that premature deaths tied to unhealthy diets are a growing global phenomenon calling for coordinated international action.
Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, generally are defined as those that include mass-produced ingredients that can't be made at home, such as preservatives, emulsifiers and sweeteners. They often contain added fats, starches, sugars, salts and hydrogenated oils extracted from other foods.
17. Endometriosis And Immune Diseases Linked, Study Shows - BBC
Women with endometriosis were found to have a 30-80% increased risk of developing autoimmune diseases, new research has shown.
Endometriosis is a condition where cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body. Symptoms include severe period pain and it causes extreme tiredness. The team said that understanding "opens up exciting possibilities" for new therapeutic approaches, such as drug repurposing or the development of combined treatments.
