Biden's Hidden Hedge on Re-Election

This year, Biden is rolling out regulations like they're going out of style, and like he may be going back to Delaware next year...

As we hurdle towards Election Day, President Joe Biden’s administration looks to be hedging its bets by rolling out thousands of pages of regulations that will tie up former President Donald Trump and smother the economy–an odd move for a campaign that seems convinced that Biden’s destiny is to remain in office until he is in his late 80s.

With the presidential election focusing increasingly on Trump’s trials and Biden’s (ever-declining) mental state, a former White House aspirant is pushing policy back to center stage–and shining an interesting spotlight on a way that Biden’s White House team is perhaps a little bit more concerned about the polls that their boss claims to be.

Mike Pence and his organization, Advancing American Freedom (AAF), rolled out a fairly stunning report, entitled Rise Of The Regulatory State: The Growing Maze of Red Tape Straining Our Economy, detailing the staggering amount of regulations that the Biden administration is releasing on a monthly basis that dwarfs the numbers put out by any president since the Soviet Union still existed.

“As he approaches the end of his term, President Biden has stepped up the release of major regulations,” AAF wrote. “In April 2024, Biden released 34 Economically Significant Rules, the most of any one month dating back to at least the Reagan Administration.” By the time Ronald Reagan took office, Biden had of course already been in the Senate for eight years. 

It is of course standard practice for presidents to sandbag their successors–even if they are of the same party–as they head towards the exits. But the noted escalation in the number of regulations that the administration is putting out makes it look like the president and his team are checking off a bunch of highly political legacy items before next January.

The Biden administration, AAF wrote, of course tried to infamously ban gas stoves a few years ago. And, his administration’s “extreme climate agenda” has already cost an estimated $1.3 trillion in red tape. But those are rookie numbers as we head into the election’s home stretch. Biden’s “drastic” new fuel efficiency standards by themselves are expected to cost almost $1 trillion, Pence’s group warns.

AAF notes that the sheer cost of these regulations is stratospheric–already totalling a whopping $1.47 trillion. But, “this wave of regulatory activity has picked up heading into 2024. A swath of final rules released during the first four months of 2024 are projected to cost some $1 trillion.” 

While Pence won’t be heading to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2025, his continued involvement by noting–in a very nerdy, Pence-y way–why Biden may actually be rolling out devastating regulations while he still can is a major boon to the conservative movement.