New York Times (Very) Reluctantly Gives Trump Credit For Regulatory Reforms

First you had Democrats begrudgingly acknowledging the benefits of the GOP tax plan, even for the Middle Class.  Now you have a Leftist paragon gritting its teeth as they are forced to admit the positive economic effects of President Donald Trump’s approach to cutting regulations.

The New York Times published a piece that did just that, though it is dripping with resentment of the economic facts they are forced reluctantly acknowledge.

“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.

[…]

There is little historical evidence tying regulation levels to growth. Regulatory proponents say, in fact, that those rules can have positive economic effects in the long run, saving companies from violations that could cost them both financially and reputationally. Cost-benefit analyses generally do not look just at the impact of a regulation on a particular business’s bottom line in the coming months, but at the broader impact on consumers, the environment, public health and other factors that can show up over years or decades.

But in the administration and across the business community, there is a perception that years of increased environmental, financial and other regulatory oversight by the Obama administration dampened investment and job creation — and that Mr. Trump’s more hands-off approach has unleashed the “animal spirits” of companies that had hoarded cash after the recession of 2008.”

The writers at the Old Gray Lady couldn’t quite bring themselves to give Trump specifically, or conservative economic policy generally, credit for such positive developments. That’s why they throw in disqualifiers wherever they can, even though they fly in the face of the very business leaders they are quoting in the article.

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that ever increasing regulations, as was the case under the Obama administration, stifle business activity. Conversely, despite the Left’s insistence that causation cannot be determined, it is common sense that halting an ever growing regulatory burden, or *GASP* actually reducing regulations, unleashes business decision makers to invest, expand, and prosper. It is basic economics, derived from basic human psychology.

“Administration officials said last month that, since January 2017, federal agencies have delayed, withdrawn or made inactive nearly 1,600 planned regulatory actions. Further rollbacks will affect financial services as well as energy and labor rules, among others.

And Mr. Trump has appointed outspoken critics of regulation to lead several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The evidence is weak that regulation actually reduces economic activity or that deregulation stimulates it. But business executives are largely convinced that the cost of complying with rules diverts money that could be invested elsewhere. And economists see a plausible connection between Mr. Trump’s determination to prune the federal rule book and the willingness of businesses to crank open their vaults. Measures of business confidence have climbed to record heights during Mr. Trump’s first year.

[…]

But business executives say the Trump administration deserves credit. Mr. MacDonald said home builders have benefited from the killing of regulations written by the Obama administration, including a rule that broadened the definition of wetlands, which could have restricted home building in certain areas. The National Labor Relations Board also reversed a decision that made builders more responsible for the working conditions of their contractors’ employees.

In some industries, the administration’s actions will allow companies to engage in activities they might not have been able to otherwise; electric utilities, for example, might be able to invest in upgrading power plants that run on fossil fuels, thanks to a promised rollback of Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan to fight climate change.

The Business Roundtable, a corporate lobbying group in Washington, reported last month that “regulatory costs” were no longer the top concern of American executives, for the first time in six years. Mr. Zandi said that regulation was still the top concern in Moody’s survey of business confidence, but that it was rapidly losing ground to concerns about the availability of labor.”

These people are quite comical in their tortured, bend-0ver-backwards attempt to deny reality. They will suspend reason indefinitely in order to keep alive the failed ideology they subscribe to.

What Trump is doing is merely scratching the surface of what actively and purposefully limiting the government intrusion on our lives can do for our economy. Of course there are a multitude of variables that play into the millions of business decisions made everyday, but the effects of deregulation should not be discounted merely because causation cannot be isolated.

The Leftists are writhing. Businesses are growing. America is winning. Get used to it.

Read more of the hesitant piece here.