Free Republic

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday a first step he believes will ensure a brighter future for Florida’s economy. DeSantis recently wrote to the members of Florida’s 23 professional licensing boards, calling on them to join him, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) Secretary Halsey Beshears on Thursday, Jan. 31 at Valencia College in Orlando for a one-day event he has called “Florida Deregathon.” The purpose, DeSantis said, is to find solutions to harmful regulations facing Floridians. During Florida Deregathon, there will be no official vote or action taken by the respective boards. Each board...

At year-end 2018, how is President Donald Trump’s regulatory reform project going? Better than Obama, Bush II, and Clinton in terms of fewer regulations; but not as good as Trump’s own first year. Let’s look at it. Monday, December 31, 2018, is the last federal workday of the year. That would seem obvious, but a partial federal shutdown on December 22 made clock-out earlier for some. Nonetheless, a preliminary tally for Federal Register page and rule counts for Trump’s 2nd calendar year has appeared, even though “[d]uring the funding lapse, Federalregister.gov is not being supported." The Number of Pages in...

"We're going to be asking for a 5 percent cut from every secretary today," Trump told reporters at the White House in advance of a meeting with those secretaries. The proposal comes days after the Trump administration announced a $779 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2018 — a six-year high and a 17 percent jump from the prior period. "He's asking them to cut the fraud, the waste, the abuse," White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox Business News. "Cut the fat, not the essentials." Trump had said in an earlier interview on the network that "We're...

The current economic boom has nothing to do with President Obama, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett suggested Monday in the briefing room. In a speech last week at the University of Illinois, Obama claimed credit for the improved economic outlook. It was his policies, he noted that paved the way for the current rate."Don't forget when the recovery started," he told the audience."You don't have to reach far" for an explanation as to why the economy is looking up, Hassett said. Trump deregulated the economy, oversaw massive tax cuts, and cut corporate tax rates, all which have resulted in...

The Trump administration recently proposed the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule. The proposed rule offers modifications to Obama-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards with a “preferred alternative” for model years 2021 through 2026. Without a doubt, the Trump administration’s proposed revision is a welcome victory for consumers’ wallets and for consumer choice. The Obama administration implemented fuel-efficiency mandates that would force auto manufacturers to have a fleetwide fuel-economy average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The new rule’s “preferred” change would maintain the existing fuel-economy mandate through 2020 (increasing to 37 mpg) and keep the level at...

Sanity: Without question, President Obama and his administration were the biggest enemies of the fossil fuel industry in the history of our country. Never mind that fossil fuels (along with innovation) were responsible for transforming the United States into the world’s leading economic power. Obama was dead-set on destroying the industry in lieu of some ‘clean energy’ nirvana that is decades away from reality, given the pace of technological development in that industry.

Who would have thought a few years ago that the biggest problem facing the labor market today would be a lack of workers — not a lack of jobs? As recently as 2012, the unemployment rate was above 8 percent, more than twice its current rate. Since President Trump's election, nearly 4 million new net jobs have been created. The unemployment rate has tied lows unseen since the Vietnam War, when men were being drafted to fight. Black and Latino unemployment rates are at record lows. And for the first time in recorded history, there are more jobs available than...

Lost in the 4th of July holiday festivities was this announcement, released July 3rd: Attorney General Jeff Sessions today announced that, consistent with his November 2017 memorandum prohibiting the Department from making rules without following the procedures required by Congress, he is rescinding 24 guidance documents that were unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper. “The American people deserve to have their voices heard and a government that is accountable to them. When issuing regulations, federal agencies must abide by constitutional principles and follow the rules set forth by Congress and the President. In previous administrations, however, agencies...

The more I think about it, the more I admire Donald Trump. It's probably not for what you're thinking. It's not simply that he's roused a moribund economy. It's not that he's boosted consumer confidence. It's not the multitude of conservative judges he's installing. Sean Hannitty complied a list of Trump accomplishments. You can see them here. From Rasmussen Reports: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Repealed Individual Mandate Justice Neil Gorsuch ANWR Set Record for First-Year Judicial Appointments to Federal Appellate Courts Historic Reduction in Illegal Immigration Crushing ISIS Caliphate Deregulation: Rolling Back the Militant Administrative State More are at...

In an ideal world, providers would be able to spend less time collecting quality data and more time actually improving the quality of care, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said here Thursday. "We need to ensure that in the quest for information on quality, we don't have providers, payers or others spend so much time accumulating data to improve reporting that they're not actually improving quality," Azar said during a press briefing with reporters at HHS headquarters. "Let's make sure it's the information that really matters; let's have the minimal necessary reporting burden to get the job...

WASHINGTON — A wave of optimism has swept over American business leaders, and it is beginning to translate into the sort of investment in new plants, equipment and factory upgrades that bolsters economic growth, spurs job creation — and may finally raise wages significantly. While business leaders are eager for the tax cuts that take effect this year, the newfound confidence was initially inspired by the Trump administration’s regulatory pullback, not so much because deregulation is saving companies money but because the administration has instilled a faith in business executives that new regulations are not coming. “It’s an overall sense...

Just in time for Christmas, the Trump administration released the Fall 2018 edition of the twice-yearly Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which, unlike prior editions, showcases progress on the president's promises to cut red tape. The occasion featured a White House announcement by the President, as well as a Wall Street Journal preview by Neomi Rao, who serves as Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. That's the office of the regulatory czar. In Trump’s first 2017 Agenda installment, which appeared back in July, 469 regulatory proposals...

‘Twas two nights before Christmas, and all through their houses Every creature was busy, double-clicking their mouses. Christmas was coming, but there were still presents to buy-- Thank heavens overnight shipping allows boxes to fly. “But how can this be?” the people asked in their haze “With so many miles to cover, why aren’t there delays?” What allowed this to happen is a very old rule, That deregulated air cargo - isn't that cool! You see, express planes were smaller, unlike today. Bigger is better, but the law said “No way!” And if Fisherman Fred shipped lively lobsters from Maine...

The government has added an average of 13,000 new restrictions annually for the past 20 years. Under Trump, the number of new regulations is near zero. In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped or eliminated more regulations in the last eight months than any president has done during an entire term. It’s not even close.” It seemed a characteristic...

After crossing the 23,000 line this week, the Dow is up nearly 5,000 points, or about 27 percent, since Election Day. It wouldn’t be there under a President Hillary Clinton or a Jeb Bush. No: Much of the credit has to go to the uncompromisingly pro-business President Trump — the antithesis of what the nation had seen the prior eight years. Nor is it just the stock market: Consumer confidence and economic optimism are up. And the Labor Department reports that claims for unemployment just dropped by 22,000 to 222,000 — the fewest since March 1973. And while, as Charles...

President Trump is to take his first step towards scrapping President Obama’s “stupid” and “job killing” Clean Power Plan, an aghast New York Times reports. The Trump administration will repeal the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to fight climate change, and will ask the public to recommend ways it could be replaced, according to an internal Environmental Protection Agency document. The draft proposal represents the administration’s first substantive step toward rolling back the plan, which was designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, after months of presidential tweets and condemnations of Mr....

Monday is “Deregulation Day” for the federal government as declared by President Donald Trump, and thus is an opportune time to deliver the findings of The Heritage Foundation’s latest tracking of regulation. The bad news is that the final year of the Obama administration brought the private-sector costs of its reign of regulatory excess to $122 billion a year. And that’s the low-ball figure. On the other hand, the Trump administration, in its first six months, launched a multifaceted reform agenda that has slowed regulatory output. Some rules have been blocked and others rescinded, along with the withdrawal of hundreds...

In a blog post titled “Red Tape Rollback: Trump Least-Regulatory President Since Reagan,” author Clyde Wayne Crews outlines three main ways that Trump is cutting the red tape. First, Trump issued an executive order in January, requiring agencies to cut two rules for every new regulation adopted. He also said that net new regulatory costs were to be zero. Trump also issued a Reorganization Executive Order that requires the Office of Management and Budget to submit a plan aimed at reducing the size of federal agencies. By Sept. 30, the Federal Register tallied 45,678 pages, down 32% from a year...

Treating home distilling as illegal makes little sense, given that homebrewing and wine making have been legal at the federal level since 1978. In the aftermath of its failure to pass a health-care overhaul, Congress appears poised to turn to tax reform. While income and corporate tax rates will likely garner most of the attention, alcohol producers are also hoping for changes to booze taxes. Specifically, brewer, vintners, and distillers have been pushing on Capitol Hill for the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which would lower federal excise taxes on alcohol. Despite attracting nearly 300 co-sponsors in the...

President Trump’s assault on red tape has saved businesses nearly $4 billion per year compared with President Barack Obama’s pace of imposing regulations, a new study found Tuesday. Final rule costs during Mr. Trump’s first six months in office will cost U.S. businesses about $378 million per year, compared with $4.2 billion for the same period of Mr. Obama’s presidency, according to the conservative American Action Forum. “The results are substantial,” said Dan Goldbeck, an analyst at AAF who prepared the report. “New regulatory burdens are a fraction of those established under President Obama’s first six months; overall regulatory volume...