King Obama and the Unfunded Mandate

from the Daily Caller

The Obama Administration imposed a record number of 101 unfunded mandates, costing $596 billion and 101 million paperwork hours, according to a research paper released Friday by The American Action Forum (AAF).

To put those figures in context, there were just 88 unfunded mandates between 1996 and 2008.

Thus, Obama managed to trump 13 years worth of unfunded mandates in just two terms. The Bush Administration pushed 56 unfunded mandates, and the Clinton Administration imposed even less — 32.

Obama enacted just over 10 unfunded mandates in 2015, and the states faced a regulatory cost of $35 billion and 75 million paperwork hours.

The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) was enacted in 1995 to avoid unfairly burdening state, local, or tribal governments, or private sector entities with too many unfunded mandates, or mandates requiring functions for which it provides no funds. AAF’s research finds that this law actually didn’t achieve those ends during Obama’s term.

It would take 50,506 individuals an entire year to meet the requirements of the Obama Administration’s 101 unfunded mandate, according to the report.

If you were to average the costs of the 101 mandates across the United States, they would amount to $1,842 per person.