The Myth of Trumps Do-Nothing Presidency
This is scary shit..
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That may be true if the benchmark is legislation, but that is an incomplete benchmark. To gauge a president’s impact you have to go beyond the laws he signs to the vast authority he wields through departments and agencies that apply the law. On that score, Mr. Trump is on track to do a lot. On finance, the internet, immigration and drugs, to name just a few issues, Trump appointees have begun nudging the economy and the country in a more conservative, pro-business direction.
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In recent weeks headlines have been dominated by the Senate’s stop-start efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Away from this drama, Mr. Trump’s Labor Department moved to undo Mr. Obama’s expansion of eligibility for overtime pay, financial regulators dropped efforts to tighten restrictions on banker pay and the Interior Department signaled it would rescind proposed rules on oil and gas fracking on federal land. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump announced transgender individuals couldn’t serve in the military, reversing an Obama-era decision.
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According to Sofie Miller of George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center, many actions taken under Mr. Trump are actually reversals of earlier rules. Ms. Miller says of 66 completed actions at the Environmental Protection Agency, a third were rule withdrawals.
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His appointees have signaled they will use the discretion allowed under the sweeping Dodd-Frank postcrisis regulatory overhaul to loosen the reins on finance. Keith Noreika, the acting comptroller of the currency, has suggested he may reinterpret the “Volcker rule” prohibition on proprietary trading to make it less onerous.
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Of course, the fruits of Mr. Trump’s presidential actions, like Mr. Obama’s, could be swept away as soon as another president takes office. But for the time being, don’t underestimate how much a president can shape the economy with no input at all from Congress.
Write to Greg Ip at greg.ip@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-myth-of-trumps-do-nothing-presidency-1501072779
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