America’s business owners, farmers and, ultimately, consumers are suffering under the weight of the twin yokes of national debt and federal rules. Government overspending and overregulation are crushing the U.S. economy.
Over the past eight years, the debt has nearly doubled, from $10.6 trillion on Jan. 20, 2009, to $19.9 trillion today. That’s a burden of $61,344 for each American. Federal regulations over the same period have exploded, with the Obama administration imposing more than 21,000 new rules on U.S. businesses at a cost of about $110 billion, according to data from the Government Accountability Office. Analysis of government regulations by the National Association of Manufacturers found they now cost employers on average almost $10,000 per employee per year.
If we are to fix our ailing economy, the out-of-control spending and overregulation must be checked, and I know just the man to do it.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., President-elect Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is a steadfast opponent of federal overspending and burdensome government regulations. As a friend and constituent, I know in that position he will work tirelessly to help get the country’s fiscal house in order and to unshackle America’s entrepreneurial spirit by, as Ronald Reagan said, “getting government out of the way of the people.”
From his time in the South Carolina Legislature to his three terms in Congress, I’ve known Mick to be a principled, pragmatic lawmaker. And he isn’t afraid to buck his own party to do what’s right for South Carolinians and for all Americans. Such was the case in late 2013 when he led the opposition to a budget deal put together by Senate Democrat Patty Murray and then-Republican Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan that would have eliminated $63 billion in automatic spending cuts, reductions that would have helped shrink the debt.
Mick also has been a resolute voice on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, insisting that federal rules be based on sound science and that they are reasonable – that is, not too difficult for businesses to implement and comply with, not too costly and, most importantly, efficacious. (It’s hardly worth imposing a regulation that won’t accomplish what it purports to do.) He voted in favor of repealing, for example, the costly and burdensome Country-of-Origin Labeling regulation on meat and the Waters of the United States rule, which would give federal bureaucrats expanded power to dictate how business owners and farmers can use their own land and waters on or near it.
For business people and farmers like me – the engines of the U.S. economy – having someone like Mick backstopping us is important. We know, as director of OMB, he will call on his business experience, including running a real estate business, small homebuilding company and a restaurant, when considering how a proposed increase in federal spending or a new government rule would affect us.
We know Mick Mulvaney will help lift the yokes of federal overspending and overregulation off our backs.
Ron Prestage is a veterinarian and a turkey and hog farmer from Camden, S.C. He’s a past president of the National Pork Producers Council and the National Turkey Federation.
*Mr. Prestage has a personal relationship with the nominee but has no interests or dealings with the Office of Management and Budget