“Federal Fumbles” is another great report produced by conservatives that will reach far too few Americans. Here is U.S. Senator James Lankford:
My fellow taxpayers:
Over the last 11 months, Congress and the new Administration have worked to roll back many of the burdensome regulations put in place by the last Administration and highlighted in previous editions of Federal Fumbles. Using the Congressional Review Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, Congress was able to repeal 14 overly burdensome or needless regulations put in place during the waning days of the Obama Administration. As a result, the businesses or individuals affected by the regulations will save $34.8 billion and more than 4.2 million hours of paperwork.
As is custom for new Administrations, in January 2017 the President ordered a temporary freeze on the implementation of new regulations. The Administration also reviewed existing regulations and found more than 850 regulatory actions that could be revoked or withdrawn. In just the first half of 2017, federal agencies withdrew or rolled back 469 agency actions that had been announced in the fall of 2016 and cut in half the number of planned regulations that will have an impact of more than $100 million a year on our economy.
While we made tremendous progress in alleviating the regulatory burden on the American economy, we have work to do in reforming how the federal government utilizes your tax dollars. In FY16, the federal government collected $3.267 trillion in taxes. That includes income taxes, corporate taxes, Social Security, and unemployment. Unfortunately, it spent $3.852 trillion, a deficit of $584 billion. Since FY09, the federal government spent $7.2 trillion more than it has taken in. Congress has yet to agree on how to stop overspending, which is why the federal government is almost $20 trillion in debt today.
Read more: www.lankford.senate.gov
