A business owner lamented to me recently that it wasn't the taxes that were crushing his business, but the costly regulations that keep on coming.
The harder the government makes it to operate a business, the less businesses there will be.
Fewer businesses. But that aside when people say regulations are costly without providing specifics typically they are upset they can't rip off the public, pollute the environment or perform other acts to the disadvantage of the population.
One alternative is to educate the population so that regulations are less necessary. But having an educated population has become unpopular.