Every administration promises to cut red tape. Very few can show you what the cuts actually saved, because paperwork is easy to count and hard to price.
The pitch rarely changes. Fewer forms and faster approvals mean companies spend less on lawyers and compliance staff, and more on equipment, wages, and new hires.
That logic holds up on paper. Proving it is harder, since scrapping a rule nobody followed saves roughly what it cost, which is close to nothing.
Wall Street tends to shrug at these scorecards, but you shouldn’t. The businesses on the receiving end set the prices you pay, the hours you work, and whether your local shop adds another person this year.
I’ve covered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent long enough to know he rarely posts a number without a purpose. On Thursday, Sept. 24, the same day the U.S. and China extended their trade truce, he posted one aimed straight at business leaders.
That number is a deregulation ratio, and the way Washington built it deserves a closer look than it got.
How White House’s 10-for-1 rule on regulations works
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 31, 2025, telling agencies to kill 10 existing rules for every new one they issue, according to a White House fact sheet.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the White House unit that reviews federal rules, keeps the scoreboard. Its December tally claimed 646 deregulatory actions against five new ones, a ratio of 129 to 1.
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The office pegged the savings at $211.8 billion, or more than $600 per American.
“We have blown far past the target 10-to-1 deregulatory ratio in President Trump’s Executive Order, saving hundreds of billions for the American people,” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought said in a statement, according to the White House.
Bessent pitches business owners on a lighter rulebook
Bessent’s post leaned on that same figure. “Under @POTUS, 129 regulations have been eliminated for every new rule introduced,” Bessent wrote on X (the former Twitter).
“By reducing red tape, the Trump Administration has created an environment where businesses can expand, hire, and invest in the American economy,” he added.
He framed it as a growth story. “Economic growth accelerates when businesses are able to invest, innovate, and compete rather than navigate unnecessary bureaucracy,” he wrote.
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It isn’t his first victory lap. In August, Treasury exempted millions of U.S. business owners from beneficial ownership reporting, a rule that made small companies disclose who really owns them.
“Treasury is eliminating a burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law-abiding business owners without compromising our national security,” Bessent wrote on X on Aug. 11.
Critics saw it differently. “This is a gift to cartels, criminals, and U.S. adversaries that exploit shell companies to move millions through our financial system,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, according to Benzinga.
Why the 129-to-1 ratio looks bigger than it is
I pulled OIRA’s own fiscal 2025 report, and the fine print tells a different story from the headline number. The 129-to-1 figure covers only the administration’s first eight months, a period that ended Sept. 30, 2025, a full year before Bessent’s post.
Here’s how the numbers break down:
- 646 deregulatory actions against five significant new rules in fiscal 2025, according to OIRA.
- 218 of those actions changed the Code of Federal Regulations, a 43-to-1 ratio, based on to the same OIRA report.
- $128.6 billion, or 61% of the claimed savings, came from Treasury, according to the George Washington University (GWU) Regulatory Studies Center.
- $47.7 billion from Homeland Security included programs whose authority expired in July 2023, the same GWU analysis noted.
The gap comes from how the counting works. Agencies “count a range of regulatory actions in the numerator, but only significant regulatory actions in the denominator,” wrote Tambudzai Charumbira (Gundani) of the GWU center.
“Simply put, OIRA gamed its methodology to produce a higher ratio,” Charumbira added.
In my analysis, the most telling detail sits in Bessent’s own building. Treasury’s slice came mostly from IRS notices declaring old guidance obsolete, including guidance on “collapsible corporations,” a provision repealed in 2013, according to the GWU review.
Charumbira did give the approach some credit. Guidance documents “can impose real compliance burdens on businesses and individuals even when they never go through a notice-and-comment rulemaking process,” she told Government Executive.
Consumer advocates want a different yardstick. “It’s not just about some number of regulations. It’s about what that represents,” Katie Tracy, a regulatory expert at Public Citizen, told Government Executive.
Tariff refunds show which companies got paid first
Bessent’s post left tariffs out entirely, and for many business owners, that’s the bigger bill.
The Supreme Court struck down tariffs President Trump imposed under emergency powers in February, and Treasury had refunded about $100 billion to importers such as Costco (COST) and FedEx (FDX) by August, according to 24/7 Wall St.
Households absorbed an estimated $1,745 per family in tariff costs and get none of that money back, the outlet estimated. “I got a feeling the American people won’t see it,” Bessent said at the Economic Club of Dallas on Feb. 23, 24/7 Wall St reported.
When I set the White House’s per-person figure next to that estimate, the two nearly cancel out. A family of three would book about $1,800 in regulatory savings on paper, spread across present and future years, while the tariff bill came out of real checkout lines.
Bessent has sparred with retailers over tariff price hikes before, and trade pressure hasn’t gone away. The U.S. and China agreed to extend their trade truce through Jan. 10, NBC News reported on Sept. 24.
What a $1.5 trillion cleanup could mean for your wallet
The administration is aiming far higher this year. Its fiscal 2026 plan lists 702 deregulatory actions and $1.5 trillion in projected savings.
The targets include vehicle emission standards at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) export controls at the Commerce Department, Fox Business reported on July 6.
“Fiscal Year 2026 will go far beyond even that number with a record-setting $1.5 trillion in projected cost savings,” OIRA general counsel Mark Paoletta said, according to Fox Business.
Some of that will be real. Faster permits and fewer duplicate filings do lower costs for a small manufacturer or a regional bank.
Whether you ever feel it is a separate question. Bessent has promised relief for Main Street over Wall Street before, so watch prices at the register and hiring at small firms, not the ratio.
Until those savings reach your grocery bill or your paycheck, 129-to-1 remains a talking point.
Related: Bessent just picked the one wage measure still rising
