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.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law by Trump in 2017 and 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 Internal Revenue Service (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.
PRESIDENT TRUMP TOUTS USMCA DEAL AT MICHIGAN AUTO SUPPLIER
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.”