#6 Infrastructure;
#7 Trade.
Being faithful to the Constitution (#1) is the starting point for all of President Trump's policies. This includes appointing strict constitutionalist judges to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and throughout the broader federal court system. This is key as the American Constitution, unlike any other, is largely about restricting the size of government in general and the size of the federal government in particular.
Advertisement
Tax (#2) reform, in the form of much lower rates and a simpler code for businesses and households, is the key policy that President Trump needs to achieve in his first two years or risk being a "lame duck" for his last two years and not being re-elected. Based on the "Laffer Curve", significant reductions in tax rates for businesses and households will not only lead to significant increases in economic growth and employment but to significant increases in tax revenue.
Trump adopted the GOP platform since 2009 of repealing and replacing Obamacare (#3). SCOTUS ruled in 2012 that Obamacare is legally a tax. Putting that to one side, the free market externalities and public good characteristics in healthcare barely exist or are, at least, very much exaggerated. In addition, as quoted in my Townhall piece of mid 2015 entitled Obamacare's Muse – The UK's NHS:
National Health Insurance means combining the efficiency of the Postal Service with the compassion of the IRS, and the cost accounting of the Pentagon.
President Trump is for promoting American energy independence and growth, and thus ending the Obama "war on coal". He is also a sceptic regarding Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). Neither the science nor the cost versus benefits of AGW (much less, so called, "peak oil") have been proven, not even on relatively low civil law standards of proof and certainly not on much higher criminal law ones. As I wrote in No More Secret Science, Needs No More Secret Economics:
Many credible folks have been pushing for some time for the EPA to take [a "blue team versus red team"] approach to the science underpinning their regulations and other actions.
Reducing regulations and controlling regulatory costs is one of the main policies under direct executive control by the President. Very little has been done on this front since President Reagan. Regulation is a more silent economy and liberty killer than tax but less so than money and debt inflation. Quoting CEI in my two-part series of Regulations Are Down But Not Out and The Only Real Regulation Reform Is Deregulation:
Advertisement
Federal regulation is a hidden tax that amounts to nearly $15,000 per US household each year, more than Americans spend on any category in their family budget except for housing.
President Trump has flagged a massive rebuilding of infrastructure, paid for, in part, by an expected large influx of tax revenue from the economic growth due to tax cuts. Most public infrastructure in the USA, however, is state and local government responsibility not federal. As written by me in Trump's Infrastructure Plan: Making Infrastructure Great Again?:
For the most part, Australia is world best practice on infrastructure and thus provides many valuable lessons for America including from National Competition Policy, privatization and public private partnerships.
Discuss in our Forums
See what other readers are saying about this article!
Click here to read & post comments.
12 posts so far.