If you say “Dodd-Frank” to most government educated people out there they will probably think that you are talking about a special hot dog treat sold at the Georgia Tech football stadium.  Actually, it’s a massive financial regulatory bill rushed into law after the 2007 recession in order to make Americans think that our wonderful politicians actually knew what caused the problem and how to solve it.   Yeah … just like they knew how to prevent future Enrons with Sarbanes-Oxley,  a continuing drag on small business formation since it was enacted.

So what do we have to look forward to from Dodd-Frank?  Last week Texas Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer (appeared on Fox Business to discuss Dodd-Frank.  He is Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations on House Financial Services.
Neugebauer tells us that Dodd-Frank calls for about 400 new regulatory “rule makings.”  (ObamaCare calls for about 1,600).  It’s now looking like the first 140 rules of Dodd-Frank will take an estimated 22.6 million man-hours per year to comply with.  That’s 22.6 illion man-hours that will not be spent producing wealth.  Hours spent complying with government regulations are not hours spent producing products, offering services, creating marketing plans, improving business efficiency or strengthening the bottom line in any way.  They are lost hours --- just like the 57 hours per year the average taxpayer spends dealing with IRS tax paperwork. 

Let’s look at 22.6 million man-hours.   Using the standard 40-hour week, with no vacations, you get 2,080 hours per employee per year. Complying with the first 140 Dodd-Frank rules will consume the entire work year of 10,876 workers.  If we extrapolate … 140 out of 400 rules equals 22.6 million man-hours … that means the entire 400 rules, when written, will consume the entire work year of about 31,000 Americans … producing NOTHING. 

In 2010 the Small Business Administration said that government regulations add about $10,500 to the cost of every private-sector employee.  Now here comes Dodd-Frank, ObamaCare and Obama’s Turbocharged EPA.  Yeah .. this is going to work out so well for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04P2EeVkuZI