Government Paperwork Burdens Have Increased Substantially under the Bush Administration, United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform – Minority Staff Special Investigations Division, April 20, 2004:
From the text of the report – President Bush has made reducing the burdens of completing government paperwork a key item in his economic agenda. In speech after speech, he emphasizes that “we must reduce unnecessary government regulation and red tape so businesses can focus on consumers and customers, not paperwork.” Contrary to the President’s rhetoric, however, total government paperwork has increased substantially under the Bush Administration to an estimated 8.1 billion hours in fiscal year 2003. Last year, Americans spent 700 million more hours filling out government paperwork than in the last year of the Clinton Administration.
