Candidate Donald Trump famously promised to get rid of two federal regulations for every new one. With 2 1/2 years in office under his belt, he has vastly exceeded that standard. Paul Bedard reports:
It was an odd, geeky campaign promise for a populist presidential candidate to make. But when Donald Trump in 2016 pledged to kill two Obama-era regulations for every new one, crowds went wild.
Those cheers stuck with him when he moved into the White House, and he put his promise into an executive order. And now as he opens his reelection campaign, Russ Vought, acting budget office director, has delivered the results sure to win even more rally cheers.
“We’ve hit 13 to 1,” he told a Heritage Foundation conference on federalism. And cutting so many regulations, he added, has saved taxpayers $33 billion.
My guess is that number is low.
Departments and agencies including the departments of Labor, Education, Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency have led the war on regulations, according to federal reports.
When I talk to business people about taxes and regulation, it is striking how often they emphasize counterproductive regulations. Lower taxes are good, definitely, but over-regulation is just as important a problem. That is the input I get, anyway. Cutting regulations is one area where the Trump administration has succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation.
PAUL ADDS: Trump has delivered on cutting needless and counterproductive regulations. However, I disagree with Bedard’s claim that the Labor Department led the way. As I have documented, the DOL, under Alex Acosta, dragged its feet. It took the intervention of Mick Mulvaney to make progress in important areas.
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