This week, former President Trump will officially become the Republican nominee.
He may soon be re-elected president, according to the most accurate predictions, which come from those who mean what they say — those who place their bets. They currently give Trump a 67% chance of winning.
President Joe Biden’s chances of being elected have dropped below 20%.
That’s good news for those of us who worry that America is being strangled by ever-tightening regulations.
Trump promises to get rid of bad rules.
“Get rid of our anchor!” he said. “We will eliminate all unnecessary job-killing regulations!”
Trump is a developer, so he understands the complicated rules that often make things nearly impossible to accomplish.
But Republicans often talk about deregulation and then Add to rule. The media called George W. Bush an “anti-regulator.” But when Bush became president, he appointed thousands of new regulators.
Trump is different.
After taking office, he hired regulatory skeptics. He told government agencies: For every new regulation added, two will be eliminated!
But they didn’t. Under Trump, regulatory growth has slowed but still increased.
Still, I think Trump’s anti-regulatory attitude is responsible for rising stock prices and falling unemployment. He conveyed a message to enterprises: The government will no longer suppress you! Then businesses start hiring more people.
Of course, the media wasn’t happy. reporter like Regulation. New York Times The headline is “Donald Trump wants to kill you”!
Regulatory advocates fail to understand that the unintended side effects of regulation often outweigh the intended benefits of regulation.
Making smaller cars (to comply with Democratic mandates for increased gas mileage) kills people. This is because smaller cars offer less protection.
“Should the government tell you what kind of car to buy?” complained Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform in a video I made about Trump.
Norquist said Trump has largely delivered on his promise to deregulate, which is a good thing for the United States.
For example, Trump rescinded an Obama-era plan to classify franchises such as McDonald’s as single businesses. Why is it so good?
“Barristers want to be able to litigate all McDonald’s, not just your local McDonald’s, if they spill coffee on themselves,” Norquist said. “The union wants to form a union all McDonald’s is more than just a store. That would be a disaster.
Trump’s Federal Communications Commission repealed former President Barack Obama’s “net neutrality” rules that had slowed the growth of online options by limiting the freedom of providers to charge different prices.
Democrats screamed. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., said on Twitter that repealing the bill would mean “the end of the Internet as we know it.”
Instead, none of the terrible things predicted (they’ll cut you off!) happened. Innovation continues. The Internet has gotten better.
But now the Biden administration wants to restore net neutrality!
They also want to ban election betting, a useful mechanism that allows us to better predict the future, as well as the election odds I quoted above.
Regulators give their crackdowns nice names to make their rules sound valuable: Today they proposed the Data Privacy Act, the Cybersecurity Resilience Act, the Fair Lending Act, and more.
“The names of these regulations are set by regulatory agencies,” Norquist said with a laugh. “They’re advertising themselves.”
He joked that regulators should be like drug companies and list the side effects of their rules: “It could lead to job losses, lower wages, higher energy costs.”
Trump’s deregulation record would be even better if he hadn’t also added new regulations such as tariffs.
“Trump is a protectionist in many ways,” Norquist said sadly. “Tariffs are taxes and border controls are consumer controls.”
When Trump took office, he announced, “For every new regulation, we cut 22 regulations!”
But that’s not true. America’s deep state is difficult to fight. Of the 22 million Americans who work for the government, many feel they are not doing their jobs without regulation more.
Despite Trump’s promises, he has left the country with more regulations than when he took office.
I hope a future President Trump will cut tariffs and farm subsidies and abolish the Export-Import Bank, anti-drug laws, and thousands of other rules that do more harm than good.
Every statute that is repealed is a step toward freedom.
Copyright 2024 JFS Productions
