The United States now ranks behind Canada in economic freedom for the first time ever, according to a video released Tuesday by the Charles Koch Institute.
The video, based on the group’s 2011 annual report, shows that economic freedom in the U.S. has fallen significantly since 2000. The report claims that regulatory compliance, detailed in the 81,000-page Federal Register, costs American businesses $1.75 trillion per year, 15 percent of the private sector economy.
“Driving this decline is a growing government burden of overspending and unnecessary regulations,” the narrator explains.
The video notes that during the Bush administration, government spending nearly doubled the federal debt. The Obama administration is on pace to spend enough to double the debt again.
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