In yet another example of government waste, bureaucratic bloat and excessive regulation, Americans complete more than 23,000 forms for 68 federal agencies each year, according to a new analysis by the American Action Forum.

Just filling out all these forms consumes 11.4 billion hours, which works out to about 35 hours per person — almost a full work week.

The biggest offender, by a large margin, was the Health and Human Services Department, with 5,005 forms, including 943 forms related to the Affordable Care Act.

That was 34 percent more than the next agency, the Agriculture Department, with more than 3,700 forms. This includes 334 forms for vegetables and specialty crops, which is more than the total number of crops actually sold in the country (222), AAF noted.

The Commerce Department came in third with more than 2,000 forms.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Treasury Department, home to the Internal Revenue Service, came in only fourth with 1,599 forms — 1,053 related to the tax code.

These forms imposed far and away the greatest time burden, however, accounting for 77 percent of the total, “thanks in large part to the incomprehensible individual and corporate tax system in the U.S.,” AAF added.

As if the sheer number of forms were not inconvenient enough, more than 1,400 Agriculture forms, more than 1,000 Treasury forms and nearly 450 HHS forms — 28 percent of those agencies’ forms — cannot be submitted online, AAF found.

While some forms are necessary to apply for certain programs, verify eligibility and make sure people are who they say they are, the amount of paperwork imposed on the public has clearly gotten out of hand — as has the amount of government regulation in general.

“The number of federal forms, 23,000, should give pause to regulators seeking to add more to the pile or to members of Congress wanting to cede additional power to the executive branch,” AAF concluded.

It should also crystallize the need to significantly reduce the size and scope of government. The thought of filling out endless forms to provide personal information, file income taxes and apply for countless government programs would have been inconceivable to our nation’s founders. It should shock the conscience still today.