Live Free Or Die

by Sean Hannity

  President Trump achieved a number of other economic successes. Some $1 trillion returned to America from overseas after he passed his tax cut bill. He instituted Opportunity Zones to stimulate growth in poorer communities. His administration designated artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and 5G as emerging technologies and as national research and development priorities.34 He reported in his 2019 State of the Union address that “as a result of my administration’s efforts, in 2018 drug prices experienced their single largest decline in 46 years.”35 He worked to expand apprenticeship programs, with more than 660,000 apprentices getting hired. He established the National Council for the American Worker to develop a workforce strategy for future jobs. More than 370 companies signed Trump’s “Pledge to America’s Workers,” in which they vowed to provide more than 14.4 million employment and training opportunities. And he signed an executive order on Cyber Workforce Development aimed at giving America the most skilled cyber workforce in the twenty-first century.

  DEREGULATION

  Deregulation is another area where the Republican Party, prior to Trump, was more talk than action. Convinced that regulations were burdening the economy and restricting our liberty, President Trump acted. The Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that federal regulations cost $1.9 trillion annually, which amounts to a hidden tax of almost $15,000 per household.36 Trump promised to cut two regulations for every new one imposed and has far exceeded that pledge. As of January 2020, President Trump had signed sixteen bills to deregulate various aspects of the economy, slashing 8.5 regulations for every new one passed37 and saving nearly $50 billion.38 The Council of Economic Advisers reported that twenty major regulatory actions the administration implemented would save American consumers and businesses some $220 billion per year, raise real incomes by $3,100 per household annually, and increase U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.0 to 2.2 percent over the next decade.39

  The administration formed the Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation to expand Trump’s model for regulatory reform to local and state governments. The initiative seeks to reduce outmoded local and state regulations, cut costs, advance occupational licensing reform, and align federal and state regulations.40 Trump also signed an executive order to reduce obstacles small company employees face in participating in retirement plans.41

  In October 2019, Trump signed two executive orders to increase transparency in the federal regulatory process. One bars federal agencies from skipping a cost-benefit analysis and avoiding public comment. The other protects people from unexpected penalties arising from interpretations of obscure regulations, by ensuring they are given advance notice of the agency’s jurisdiction and the applicable legal standards. This is designed to shelter people from major fines for conducting innocuous activities on their own property, such as building a pond. “Today, we take bold, new action to protect Americans from out-of-control bureaucracy and stop regulations from imposing secret rules and hidden penalties on the American people,” said President Trump at the signing ceremony for the orders.42

  The administration also rolled back the “Waters of the U.S.” rule, an Obama-era order that empowered the federal government to regulate even swamps and wetlands on private property, subjecting farmers to heavy fines and uncertainty. The rule change would prevent landowners from spending thousands of dollars on permit costs. Other federal and state regulations would still apply, but repeal of this rule, says EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, “would mean that farmers, property owners and businesses will spend less time and money determining whether they need a federal permit.”43

  Importantly, President Trump rejected environmentalist fearmongering and terminated President Obama’s reckless war on the coal industry. The administration’s greenhouse gas emissions plan aims to boost production from coal-fired power plants. The plan allows states to develop their own initiatives to increase the efficiency of their power plants.44 Trump also signed a bill repealing the Obama administration’s Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, which effectively banned mining in portions of Appalachia,45 saying the elimination of this “terrible job killing rule” would save “many thousands of American jobs, especially in the mines.”46

  Leftist environmental extremists always force us to falsely choose between the environment and the economy, demonizing conservatives as enemies of the planet. In fact, conservatives believe in good stewardship but reject the radical solutions offered by leftists, which don’t work, savage our domestic energy sources, and financially burden consumers. As such, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) replaced the Obama administration’s overreaching “Clean Power Plan” with an “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule, which allows states to reduce emissions while still providing affordable energy for consumers.47

  In August 2018, the administration also recommended freezing the extreme miles-per-gallon standard for cars and light trucks at their 2020 level, instead of implementing Obama’s unrealistically stringent standards. Wheeler stated that the EPA seeks to strike “the right regulatory balance” between cost, safety, and environmental concerns. The change will prevent vehicle prices from increasing by an average of $2,340.48 The administration also seeks to replace Obama-era fuel economy regulations with the SAFE Vehicles Rule to make cars cheaper and “substantially safer.”49 In compromise, the Trump administration agreed to increase fuel economy standards by 1.5 percent per year from 2021 through 2026 instead of freezing them at 2020 levels.50 Of course, that wasn’t enough to please environmentalists, who won’t be satisfied until we return to the horse and buggy—and even then, they’d probably object to exploiting horses.

  Trump also signed a bill rolling back bank rules of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which was passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Trump’s bill lifted onerous rules on small and medium-sized lenders and was designed to spur economic growth. Trump was adamant that Dodd-Frank was crippling community banks and credit unions. Despite progressive angst over the bill, seventeen Senate Democrats voted for it.

  On June 25, 2019, Trump established the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing, saying that “federal, state, local and tribal governments impose a multitude of regulatory barriers—laws, regulations, and administrative practices—that hinder the development of housing,” impede America’s economic growth, and harm low- and middle-income Americans.51

  ENERGY

  President Trump dramatically reversed Obama-era energy policies—with amazing effect. In April 2017, he issued an executive order to expand offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans and open more leases to develop offshore drilling. This was just four months after Obama withdrew these areas from development. At the signing ceremony Trump touted America’s abundant offshore oil and gas reserves, lamenting that the federal government had kept 94 percent of these areas closed from exploration and production. “We’re opening it up,” said Trump.52 In March 2019 an Alaska district judge blocked Trump’s order, declaring that presidents have the power under federal law to remove lands from development but cannot revoke those removals.53 In May, the Trump administration appealed the ruling.54 Separately, the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced they would offer 78 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing in March 2019.55

  President Trump signed a bill to open the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to domestic energy production, with the Bureau of Land Management offering leases on 1.6 million acres.56 Trump also signed executive orders to permit the building of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, which had been blocked by the Obama administration. Keystone would be almost 1,200 miles long and pass through six states, shipping more than 800,000 barrels of petroleum daily from Canadian oil sands through Nebraska and on to the Gulf coast. The Dakota pipeline would transport crude oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa and on to Illinois.57 The projects would create 42,000 temporary
jobs and generate a projected $2 billion in earnings.58 In April 2020, however, a Montana federal judge ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to suspend all filling and dredging activities on the pipeline pending proof that it complies with the Endangered Species Act.59

  In June 2017 Trump approved construction of a new petroleum pipeline between the United States and Mexico to boost American exports.60 The Trump EPA also rescinded Obama’s methane emissions rule that would cost energy companies a projected $530 million annually.61

  As a result of Trump’s systematic reversal of Obama’s energy agenda, the United States, as noted, has become a net exporter of natural gas for the first time since 1957 and for the first time since 1973 is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, having surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia.62 More good news on this front came in April 2020 when it was reported that Pantheon Resources PLC, an oil exploration firm, discovered a deposit of some 1.8 billion barrels in Alaska’s North Slope region, south of Prudhoe Bay.63

  TRADE

  Initially many people mistakenly assumed President Trump was a protectionist, but as I’ve said from the beginning, his goal is not to isolate America from the rest of the world or restrict our international trade but to secure better trade deals that stop other nations from taking advantage of us. Fulfilling his campaign promise, Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada, and Mexico, believing these industries had suffered from unfair trade practices that reduced our production of those products and imperiled our national security.64

  From the beginning of his term, Trump sought better trade deals with our trading partners. Early on, by executive order, he withdrew the United Sates from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), billed as a free trade agreement between the United States and eleven other countries. Critics of the agreement believed it was a regulatory nightmare that did more to advance non-trade special interests than to promote free trade.65 “Great thing for the American worker what we just did,” said Trump as he signed the order ending our participation in the deal that was a central part of President Obama’s Asia policy.

  In July 2018, Trump reached an agreement with the European Union to work toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods. The EU agreed to purchase billions of dollars in American exports such as soybean and natural gas, and to cooperate on reforming international trade rules. “The European Union is going to start almost immediately to buy a lot of soybeans—a tremendous market… from our farmers in the Midwest primarily,” said Trump.66 In September 2019 Trump announced he had struck a deal in which Japan would cut tariffs on $7 billion worth of American agricultural products and the United States would lower tariffs on many Japanese industrial goods. The deal would also increase digital trade between Japan and the United States, but did not resolve existing or additional U.S. tariffs on Japanese autos.67

  Trump honored his promise to roll back the Obama administration’s favorable trade and travel policies with Cuba that bolstered the regime while harming the Cuban people. Trump reimposed certain travel and trade restrictions but did not sever diplomatic or commercial ties or close the U.S. embassy in Havana. He continued to allow commercial flights from the United States and to permit Americans to bring Cuban goods into the United States.68 In October 2019, he imposed new sanctions on Cuba because of its human rights violations and for supporting Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.69

  President Trump kept his promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he believed damaged midwestern industries by undermining the bargaining power of American workers and stalling the expansion of the middle class.70 Trump also completed the United States–Mexico–Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) in early 2020. USMCA revises Mexico’s labor laws, encourages greater North American car production, and pries open Canadian markets for American dairy farmers.71 Despite widespread resistance from Democrats to reopening NAFTA negotiations in the first place, eventually they overwhelmingly joined Republicans in approving the revised deal in both the House and the Senate.

  President Trump has taken strong and unprecedented moves against predatory behavior by communist China. An investigation he initiated found that China was engaged in numerous unfair trade practices against the United States, including stealing technology and intellectual property from the computer networks of U.S. companies, using licensing procedures to pressure technology transfers to Beijing, and imposing substantial restrictions on the investments and activities of American companies. In March 2018 Trump announced that in response, he would impose tariffs on various Chinese products, pursue action against China in the World Trade Organization, and restrict China’s U.S. investments.72 He has also limited the ability of Huawei, a government-backed Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer, to operate in the United States.73

  In the summer of 2019, the administration placed 25 percent tariffs on some $250 billion worth of products that benefit from China’s unfair industrial policies.74 He later announced he would impose 10 percent tariffs on another $300 billion worth of goods, effective September 1, 2019.75 When China threatened to retaliate with increased tariffs on American products, Trump threated to raise tariffs to 30 percent on the initial $250 billion worth of goods and 15 percent on the additional $300 billion worth of goods, effective October 1, 2019.76

  Although the Democrats denounced Trump for sparking a “trade war” with China, his hardball tactics have paid off. After further negotiations, Trump and China reached a phase-one deal, whereby the United States would leave the 25 percent tariffs in place and impose 7½ percent tariffs on $120 billion of the remaining $300 billion worth of goods.77 In exchange China agreed to make substantial purchases of American goods and to adopt structural reforms in intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services, and currency and foreign exchange.78 In December 2019 President Trump said that at Beijing’s request, “phase two” talks with China would begin soon. In this phase Trump aims to eliminate even more of China’s malign trading activities.79

  REBUILDING OUR DEFENSES

  To fully appreciate President Trump’s revitalization of our military, you have to understand that President Obama deliberately engineered a decline in our military, which I pointed out as it was happening. Obama expanded our military commitments for both military and nonmilitary purposes while gutting its funding. President Trump has taken the opposite approach—to disentangle our forces from unnecessary wars and assignments while building up our defense capabilities to deter future wars and increase our readiness should they occur.

  Soldiers themselves testified to Obama’s fecklessness toward the military. A Military Times/Institute for Veterans and Military Families poll showed that more than half the troops had an unfavorable opinion of Obama and his military leadership, while just 36 percent approved.80 Service members seemed to doubt his military priorities—maybe, for example, because of incidents such as Obama using a commencement speech to West Point cadets to tout his global warming agenda, which he called a “creeping national security crisis.”81 “There’s no question that this era will go down as the third ‘hollow’ army, and it’s the president’s fault,” said the Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano, speaking of Obama. “For all his promises, the operations tempo hasn’t gone down as much as he hoped, and he has invested little in the military.”82 The Obama administration’s failure to reinvest in our military was the “biggest factor” in our allies’ underinvestment in defense, says Carafano. Writing in 2017, he noted that “the defense budget has been cut by 25 percent over the last five years.”83

  Obama’s disarmament is shown by “defense-spending arithmetic,” says Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute. The Pentagon lost $250 billion in purchasing power from Obama’s changes to the five-year defense plan he inherited from the prior Bush administration. In 2009, right off the bat, Obama ordered defense secretary Robert Gates
to cut $300 billion from Pentagon programs, which effectively eliminated several major weapons acquisitions projects, says Donnelly. A particularly damaging cut was the F-22 fighter, which was designed to employ stealth technology to ensure America’s air superiority. Obama and Gates terminated the program at 187 planes—just one-fourth of the 750 the Air Force planned.84 The Navy and Air Force have also retired ships and planes without replacing them. The Defense Department planned to build 300 F-35 fighters per year to replace the lightweight fighters in the Air Force, Navy, and Marines—but they built less than 10 percent of the planned number. Obama also significantly cut our troop numbers from 560,000 to around 450,000.85

  The progressive media and other assorted leftists deny that Obama gutted our defenses. You’d actually think they’d be proud of it, since they constantly advocate downsizing military spending in favor of social programs. But even an NPR fact-check article in 2016 conceded that military “spending is down; the force is smaller than when Obama took office and its equipment is aging.”86