Tell Me Again What Republicans Are Good For?

"Cost of Government Day"--the point in the year when you start working for yourself, instead of paying for local, state, and federal taxes, fees, and regulations--was on Friday. According to Americans for Tax Reform, "those costs now account for nearly 53 percent of the nation's income and require the average employee to spend 193 days a year working to meet the costs imposed on them by various levels of government." ATR economist Daniel Clifton notes:

This is an increase of four and a half days from last year. It is now 17 additional days in just the past three years. That is a ten percent increase in the cost of government in three years.

The growth includes increases of more than 12 percent in federal spending and more than 8 percent in federal regulatory costs. Meanwhile, the Cato Institute points out that "the 2002 Federal Register contained an alltime record 75,606 pages, a nearly 9 percent increase over 2001."