These 4 factors bolstered Trump's economy
Trump's economic freedom agenda is key to success, Treasury Department official says
The reason the U.S. economy is thriving is due to the Trump administration’s "four-pillar" economic freedom agenda, according to a Treasury Department official.
U.S. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Monica Crowley joined FOX Business’ “The Evening Edit” on Thursday and said President Trump’s economic plan is built upon four pillars.
“All [four] came into play to unleash the traditional American engine of economic growth, prosperity, innovation, creativity,” Crowley explained. “We're seeing all of those things come into play now. And again, it's not a coincidence. It's a direct result of President Trump's economic policies.”
1) Tax cuts
“I gave you the greatest tax reduction in the history of our country,” Trump said in November 2019 referencing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act while speaking to supporters at a “Keep America Great” rally in Monroe, Louisiana.
Trump signed The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law in 2017, and it was one of the most significant overhauls of the U.S. tax code in decades. Due to the act, American companies paid $91 billion less in taxes in 2018, according to data published by the IRS.
2) Regulatory reform
“We’ve added 12,000 brand-new factories and many more are coming in,” Trump said in January during a rally in Toledo, Ohio. “And one of the reasons they’re coming in is we’ve eliminated a record number of job-killing regulations.”
The Trump administration withdrew or delayed 860 proposed regulations in its first five months. The Trump administration has said the Obama administration introduced rules in the last five months of fiscal 2016 that imposed $6.8 billion in annual costs on the economy, while the rules imposed during Trump’s first five months have imposed no costs.
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3) Unleashing the American energy sector
“We ended the last administration’s war on American energy,” Trump said during the same “Keep America Great” rally in Toledo.
For example, the Trump administration recently approved a right-of-way allowing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to be built across U.S. land, federal officials told The Associated Press, pushing the controversial $8 billion project closer to construction though court challenges still loom.
The 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude oil daily from western Canada to terminals on the Gulf Coast.
4) Delivering better trade deals for the American worker
“You were losing all your jobs; they were leaving; they were going to other countries,” Trump said Thursday while visiting an automotive supply facility in Warren, Michigan. “But we stopped it, and [USMCA] stops it, and now they are coming back because they want to be where the action is ... in our country and in this state.”
The USMCA is set to cover more than $1 trillion of commerce between the United States, Mexico and Canada. The deal also requires 75 percent of auto parts to be made in the three countries to skirt overseas tariffs, which is why the president visited that Michigan plant.
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The agreement also says up to 45 percent of auto parts must be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour by 2023 and is expected to create 80,000 new auto jobs, bringing up to $30 billion in new investments to the industry.
Crowley applauded the signing of the USMCA and called it “astonishing.”
“This is a huge historic win for American workers, farmers, manufacturers and businesses,” Crowley told FOX Business’ Elizabeth MacDonald.
The U.S. economy maintained a steady pace of growth in the fourth quarter of last year, according to preliminary data published by the Commerce Department. For the full year, the economy grew 2.3 percent, boosted by consumer spending and net exports.
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Crowley said Trump’s economic successes will greatly influence the upcoming presidential election.
“Whomever the Democrats nominate is going to be a very hard sell because this president has kept his promises to the American worker and the American people,” she said. “And you're seeing the results in this booming economy.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.