Did Trump set a record for increasing regulation?

The size of the Trump regulation orgy will shock you!

But first, we based our current version of Downsize DC on the idea that you can overcome Media Agenda Setting. And agenda setting theory was a key topic in the most recent episode of my podcast, Gracearchy with Jim Babka. Check out the Post Script below my signature for details.

Now, back to Trump’s smashing regulatory record.

I don’t want to merely complain about a bad thing a politician did. That’s a target-rich environment, and we have way too much whining already.

Instead, I want to aim at what his supporters believe this politician did, as opposed to what he actually did. Better yet…

I want to provide a solution that will make things better, no matter which politician is in office, so…

Here we go

We’ve all heard a specific partisan talking point promoted by Trump supporters. They tell us that Trump really did make an effort to “drain the swamp.” They point to his regulation cuts for evidence. And you know what…

They have a solid case to make because Trump did indeed cut regulations at the start of his administration. But it’s where you end up that matters, not where you start. So get ready because…

I’m about to tell you something shocking!

President Trump set a record for the largest one-year increase in federal regulations!

How can this be? Everyone says he reduced regulations.

The problem is that he was creating new regulations while he was removing old ones, and then, over time, he shifted to adding new regulations faster than he removed old ones. And finally, at the end of his administration, he began sprinting, adding more and more regulations, faster and faster. The following chart from the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center tells the tale…

So what lesson can we learn from the Trump regulation orgy?

Trump’s true regulatory record verifies, once again, a point we’ve made repeatedly. You are unlikely to solve government problems by electing better politicians because…

The new politicians you elect will be subject to the same pressures and incentives that seduced or compelled the previous set of politicians to do bad things. Instead…

You must change those pressures and incentives.

Here’s how you do that…

Make sure that politicians are experiencing just as much lobbying pressure from taxpayers as they do from special interests.
You must pressure the politicians to pass laws that will change the rules and incentives by which the government currently operates.

Those are the things we are trying to do!

We’ve even written legislation to change the incentives.

Then, we got them introduced in Congress!

Indeed, one of our laws – the WTLA (Write the Laws Act) – would have made Trump’s final-year regulatory orgy impossible.

Pass the Write the Laws Act

Set your own agenda,

Jim Babka, President
Agenda Setters by Downsize DC

P.S. The newest episode of my podcast is titled: Deeper Truths: CNN Features Trump & Fox Fires Tucker. Normally, I’d be telling you these things were ephemeral. Actually, there are deeper things to learn from these stories.

There’s a reason CNN featured Trump in his own town hall, despite their clear opposition to him. There’s also an interesting history of how he became president, and it helps explain why he’s both so loved and loathed.

And Tucker Carlson’s firing is a harbinger of likely events to come in the second half of this decade. If you think the censorship and disinformation war was ugly, you’ve not seen anything yet!

Every episode of Gracearchy with Jim Babka is on these podcasting five platforms: Pandora * Stitcher * iHeart * Google Podcasts * Spotify, but we feature it on YouTube…