REAL News for REAL People
Remarks by President Trump in a Cabinet Meeting
Press Release:
Cabinet Room • October 17, 2018 • 11:56 A.M. EDT
President Trump's Current, 2018, Cabinet: Above. (White House photo) Click image to expand.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Yeah, we'll start off with a prayer for our great Cabinet. And, Ben Carson, would you do the honors? Thank you very much.
(A prayer is given.)
Thank you very much, Ben. That was very nice. Thank you. It's great to have everybody and have a little meeting. We're going to go over deregulation and some other things. If you'd like to stay, you're certainly entitled to.
Today's Cabinet meeting will focus on my administration's historic and unprecedented effort to remove job-killing regulations. They have been put on our country at a level over the last 15 and 20 years like nobody has ever seen before; more in the last 10 years than we had in every year put together.
We have eliminated more regulations than any administration ever - even though it's substantially less than two years that we're here.
We're lifting the crushing federal burdens on farmers, ranchers, factory workers, energy producers, and businesses of all types.
Along with our massive tax cuts and powerful trade policies, which you're seeing every day - the deals we're making are unprecedented; great deals - this regulatory rollback has helped to unleash an economic miracle: Jobless claims are at their lowest level in more than 50 years. African American, Hispanic American, Asian American unemployment rates have all recently achieved their lowest levels ever recorded.
And the economic pictures all throughout the country - literally no matter what aspect of business, finance, economics you're talking about - we're setting records. I can't think of any category of business where we're not setting records, unless it's negative, in which case we're way, way far away from those records.
The World Economic Forum just announced that the United States has reclaimed its place after a long absence as the world's most competitive economy and country. That's a great thing to have.
We've also ended the war on American energy. We are now the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. And soon I'll be able to say "by far." We will be, by far, the largest.
We're removing red tape so we can substantially lower the price of healthcare premiums and prescription drugs. We've come out with healthcare programs that are incredible, that people are just starting to learn about.
We got rid of the individual mandate in Obamacare, and we're running Obamacare - the remnants of it - better than ever before. The premiums are going up at a much smaller rate. It will end up being over at some point. We had it done, but unfortunately, somebody decided to vote against that at the last moment, even though they campaigned for years saying they were going to do it. But these are the facts of life. But it's of no import because it's happening anyway. But getting rid of the individual mandate was a very, very powerful thing.
We oppose efforts from Democrats to destroy your healthcare and to raid your Medicare to pay for socialism. And that's what's happening. You'll end up with Venezuela.
We totally support people with preexisting conditions. We have a tremendous level of talent, and we're doing a lot of work on preexisting conditions. And Democrats will never be able to pull that off.
I will be asking every Cabinet Secretary to continue identifying and removing every needless, wasteful, and job-killing regulation that remains on the books.
And while we've set a record - even though it's a short period of time, we've set a record no President or administration has cut nearly as much. There are many, many left to do. And it will not hurt safety, it will not hurt health, it will not hurt anything. It will get things moving faster.
We have tremendous potential. Our country has tremendous potential. And a lot of it was held up by exactly what we're talking about.
To stop offshoring and outsourcing, we are also fixing America's horrendous trade deals. You know all about that - the deal with Canada, with Mexico, with South Korea. We're in a position where we're in very good shape with China. China wants to make a deal. And we're just - I'm just saying they're not ready yet. I told them, "You're not ready to make a deal yet." And I don't blame China. I blame the people that were in charge of running our country, for allowing that to happen. China was taking out $500 billion a year - and more. And that should never have been allowed to happen.
But likewise, other countries are - at a much smaller level are - everybody does well against the piggy bank. And we're stopping that. We want fairness, and we're going to have fairness.
So the USMCA has turned out to be a deal that's been incredible for our farmers, for our manufacturers, for everybody. It's going through the process now. It's been approved by Mexico, been approved by Canada. And likewise, the deal, as you know, in South Korea was a deal made by the previous administration. It was unacceptable. It was so bad. It was unacceptable. It was a tremendous drag on this country, and we've changed it. And now it's a very good deal for our country.
So that's why we're here. And I think what we'll do is we'll start on the regulation aspect by asking Director Mulvaney to give you an update as to exactly what's been going on.
Where is Mick?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Thanks, Mr. President. I'm just going to give a real quick summary, because I know we're going to hear from individual Cabinet members. I want to give you sort of the top line, where we are over the last two years.
As I mentioned in the Oval Office meeting we had with the various industry and community leaders just a couple minutes ago, it's been a tremendous success.
You remember, when we first got here, you gave us some goals, which is that we wanted two old regs off the books for every new one reg that went on. Last year, we did 22 to 1. This year, we did 12 to 1. Don't let that mislead you. We actually did better this year: 176 regs off the books this year. That's dramatically more than last year.
You also gave us a goal of no new regulatory burden. So if you're going to add a dollar of burden over here, you have to go to over and find a dollar's worth of savings over there. Last year, I think we did about 9.5, 10 billion dollars' worth of savings. This year, 23 [billion].
Where does that put us in comparison to where the Obama administration was in its last year? On the right hand side, you'll see in the last year of the Obama administration, they sat on this economy with $216 billion worth of costs from new regulations. And that's just in the last year, okay? We've reduced that burden by $33 billion in our first two years. So everything is pointed in the right direction.
You're going to hear from a lot of folks here. You're not going to hear - get a chance to hear from everybody, but HHS has done tremendous work on reducing paperwork. Commerce has done some really, really good work on fishing. The VA has done some work on technology that is saving veterans real money in terms of now they don't have to drive someplace, they can get some of the benefits through technology. Real savings for America's veterans.
Labor: One of the big things - I don't think it's nearly enough attention - is this Associated Health Plan works that Labor has been doing this year.
Across the board, Mr. President, it's probably one of the biggest successes we've had as an administration. Doesn't get the attention it deserves. That's probably understandable. It's just not as glamorous as things like taxes and energy. But getting rid of the small stuff over the course of time makes a big, big difference. I think it's one of the reasons you see - Larry is going to talk later on today about the economic prosperity. This is a big reason for it.
THE PRESIDENT: That is true. Right.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: So, it's been a huge success.
THE PRESIDENT: That is a big factor. Thank you very much, Mick.
Secretary Zinke? Thank you.
SECRETARY ZINKE: Thank you, Mr. President. You issued an executive order in reducing regulation and controlling regulatory costs. The actions the Department of Interior has taken is we've withdrawn, since 2017, over 150 proposed rulemakings from our regulatory agenda.
We've also finalized no less than 19 deregulatory actions in 2018, to include eliminating the BLM hydraulic fracking rule, revising the 2016 BLM venting and flaring rule to allow beneficial use and collection. Also issued guidance on BLM entering in mitigation, which in some cases is tantamount to extortion.
The results have been that the deregulatory actions have resulted in roughly about $2.5 billion in net present-value savings. And those billions of dollars are without removing environmental safeties. But we have increased reliability. We've increased safety and environmental stewardship.
Your executive order on promoting energy independence and economic growth, actions the Department of Interior has taken: We've cut burdens on domestic energy. We've held 20 offshore leases, so far, in 2018, with more scheduled. The largest lease in the history of this country in the Gulf. We've reduced oil permitting times from over 4,500 oil and gas permits, bringing it down to 90 days or less.
The results have been unprecedented. Our oil production has increased on federal lands, and then we support a total U.S. oil production at an all-time high. We are well over 11 million barrels, and on our way to 14 million barrels a day.
Recently, we had an onshore lease sale in New Mexico that generated the most revenue in the history under your administration, sir, and leadership. Nearly $1 billion in lease in less than 48 hours.
We've also had the offshore energy safety record. This being done is the record for being the most safe on offshore, because we believe in best technology, best science, best practices, that increase safety, environmental stewardship, and reliability.
In short, Mr. President, unleashing the potential of American energy in all its forms is estimated to be $20 trillion in unrealized wealth and 2.7 million new jobs.
I'm proud to say, Mr. President, under your leadership, America will never be held hostage again by any foreign entity for our energy, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Very good. Thank you very much. That's music to my ears. (Laughter.)
On transportation - thank you very much, Ryan - I'd like to ask Elaine Chao, who's doing a terrific job. Secretary, please.
SECRETARY CHAO: Well, the Department of Transportation is hard at work to reduce red tape and overly burdensome regulations - regulations that are duplicative, that don't contribute to safety, that inhibit economic growth and job creation, and also negatively impact the quality of life for all of us.
So the Department has exceeded the 2-to-1 mandate that you've just heard about for regulatory reform in fiscal year 2018. The Department of Transportation withdrew 23 regulations - regulations that didn't make sense, that were nonsensical, that were overly burdensome, that were basically red tape. And we've added only one significant regulation that was needed, saving the taxpayers more than $1.2 billion in regulatory cost.
Compare this with prior to this administration: Out of the Department of Transportation alone, annually, the amount of regulatory cost enacted by the Department of Transportation in the previous administration was $3 billion annually.
In the first year of this administration, the Department achieved $1.2 billion in savings. And in this coming year, the Department expects to achieve an additional $2 billion in regulatory cost savings.
Now, all of this will be accomplished without compromising safety. And on the horizon, the Department will address unrealistic and overly burdensome fuel economy standards to help make newer, safer cars more affordable for working Americans; expand the U.S. lead in commercial space - which the Vice President, you have asked to take the leadership of - by streamlining procedures for commercial space launches.
Six years ago, America was third in commercial space launches. This year, America is number one, and we want to keep it that way.
On the horizon, the Department will also allow the safe operation of drones over the heads of people, out of the line of sight, and at night. And we are looking at pilot programs that will give us more information with which to allow this, rather than individual case-by-case waivers for a drone population that is now $1.2 million as of August 12th of this year.
Go Back
Cabinet Room • October 17, 2018 • 11:56 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Yeah, we'll start off with a prayer for our great Cabinet. And, Ben Carson, would you do the honors? Thank you very much.
(A prayer is given.)
Thank you very much, Ben. That was very nice. Thank you. It's great to have everybody and have a little meeting. We're going to go over deregulation and some other things. If you'd like to stay, you're certainly entitled to.
Today's Cabinet meeting will focus on my administration's historic and unprecedented effort to remove job-killing regulations. They have been put on our country at a level over the last 15 and 20 years like nobody has ever seen before; more in the last 10 years than we had in every year put together.
We have eliminated more regulations than any administration ever - even though it's substantially less than two years that we're here.
We're lifting the crushing federal burdens on farmers, ranchers, factory workers, energy producers, and businesses of all types.
Along with our massive tax cuts and powerful trade policies, which you're seeing every day - the deals we're making are unprecedented; great deals - this regulatory rollback has helped to unleash an economic miracle: Jobless claims are at their lowest level in more than 50 years. African American, Hispanic American, Asian American unemployment rates have all recently achieved their lowest levels ever recorded.
And the economic pictures all throughout the country - literally no matter what aspect of business, finance, economics you're talking about - we're setting records. I can't think of any category of business where we're not setting records, unless it's negative, in which case we're way, way far away from those records.
The World Economic Forum just announced that the United States has reclaimed its place after a long absence as the world's most competitive economy and country. That's a great thing to have.
We've also ended the war on American energy. We are now the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. And soon I'll be able to say "by far." We will be, by far, the largest.
We're removing red tape so we can substantially lower the price of healthcare premiums and prescription drugs. We've come out with healthcare programs that are incredible, that people are just starting to learn about.
We got rid of the individual mandate in Obamacare, and we're running Obamacare - the remnants of it - better than ever before. The premiums are going up at a much smaller rate. It will end up being over at some point. We had it done, but unfortunately, somebody decided to vote against that at the last moment, even though they campaigned for years saying they were going to do it. But these are the facts of life. But it's of no import because it's happening anyway. But getting rid of the individual mandate was a very, very powerful thing.
We oppose efforts from Democrats to destroy your healthcare and to raid your Medicare to pay for socialism. And that's what's happening. You'll end up with Venezuela.
We totally support people with preexisting conditions. We have a tremendous level of talent, and we're doing a lot of work on preexisting conditions. And Democrats will never be able to pull that off.
I will be asking every Cabinet Secretary to continue identifying and removing every needless, wasteful, and job-killing regulation that remains on the books.
And while we've set a record - even though it's a short period of time, we've set a record no President or administration has cut nearly as much. There are many, many left to do. And it will not hurt safety, it will not hurt health, it will not hurt anything. It will get things moving faster.
We have tremendous potential. Our country has tremendous potential. And a lot of it was held up by exactly what we're talking about.
To stop offshoring and outsourcing, we are also fixing America's horrendous trade deals. You know all about that - the deal with Canada, with Mexico, with South Korea. We're in a position where we're in very good shape with China. China wants to make a deal. And we're just - I'm just saying they're not ready yet. I told them, "You're not ready to make a deal yet." And I don't blame China. I blame the people that were in charge of running our country, for allowing that to happen. China was taking out $500 billion a year - and more. And that should never have been allowed to happen.
But likewise, other countries are - at a much smaller level are - everybody does well against the piggy bank. And we're stopping that. We want fairness, and we're going to have fairness.
So the USMCA has turned out to be a deal that's been incredible for our farmers, for our manufacturers, for everybody. It's going through the process now. It's been approved by Mexico, been approved by Canada. And likewise, the deal, as you know, in South Korea was a deal made by the previous administration. It was unacceptable. It was so bad. It was unacceptable. It was a tremendous drag on this country, and we've changed it. And now it's a very good deal for our country.
So that's why we're here. And I think what we'll do is we'll start on the regulation aspect by asking Director Mulvaney to give you an update as to exactly what's been going on.
Where is Mick?
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Thanks, Mr. President. I'm just going to give a real quick summary, because I know we're going to hear from individual Cabinet members. I want to give you sort of the top line, where we are over the last two years.
As I mentioned in the Oval Office meeting we had with the various industry and community leaders just a couple minutes ago, it's been a tremendous success.
You remember, when we first got here, you gave us some goals, which is that we wanted two old regs off the books for every new one reg that went on. Last year, we did 22 to 1. This year, we did 12 to 1. Don't let that mislead you. We actually did better this year: 176 regs off the books this year. That's dramatically more than last year.
You also gave us a goal of no new regulatory burden. So if you're going to add a dollar of burden over here, you have to go to over and find a dollar's worth of savings over there. Last year, I think we did about 9.5, 10 billion dollars' worth of savings. This year, 23 [billion].
Where does that put us in comparison to where the Obama administration was in its last year? On the right hand side, you'll see in the last year of the Obama administration, they sat on this economy with $216 billion worth of costs from new regulations. And that's just in the last year, okay? We've reduced that burden by $33 billion in our first two years. So everything is pointed in the right direction.
You're going to hear from a lot of folks here. You're not going to hear - get a chance to hear from everybody, but HHS has done tremendous work on reducing paperwork. Commerce has done some really, really good work on fishing. The VA has done some work on technology that is saving veterans real money in terms of now they don't have to drive someplace, they can get some of the benefits through technology. Real savings for America's veterans.
Labor: One of the big things - I don't think it's nearly enough attention - is this Associated Health Plan works that Labor has been doing this year.
Across the board, Mr. President, it's probably one of the biggest successes we've had as an administration. Doesn't get the attention it deserves. That's probably understandable. It's just not as glamorous as things like taxes and energy. But getting rid of the small stuff over the course of time makes a big, big difference. I think it's one of the reasons you see - Larry is going to talk later on today about the economic prosperity. This is a big reason for it.
THE PRESIDENT: That is true. Right.
DIRECTOR MULVANEY: So, it's been a huge success.
THE PRESIDENT: That is a big factor. Thank you very much, Mick.
Secretary Zinke? Thank you.
SECRETARY ZINKE: Thank you, Mr. President. You issued an executive order in reducing regulation and controlling regulatory costs. The actions the Department of Interior has taken is we've withdrawn, since 2017, over 150 proposed rulemakings from our regulatory agenda.
We've also finalized no less than 19 deregulatory actions in 2018, to include eliminating the BLM hydraulic fracking rule, revising the 2016 BLM venting and flaring rule to allow beneficial use and collection. Also issued guidance on BLM entering in mitigation, which in some cases is tantamount to extortion.
The results have been that the deregulatory actions have resulted in roughly about $2.5 billion in net present-value savings. And those billions of dollars are without removing environmental safeties. But we have increased reliability. We've increased safety and environmental stewardship.
Your executive order on promoting energy independence and economic growth, actions the Department of Interior has taken: We've cut burdens on domestic energy. We've held 20 offshore leases, so far, in 2018, with more scheduled. The largest lease in the history of this country in the Gulf. We've reduced oil permitting times from over 4,500 oil and gas permits, bringing it down to 90 days or less.
The results have been unprecedented. Our oil production has increased on federal lands, and then we support a total U.S. oil production at an all-time high. We are well over 11 million barrels, and on our way to 14 million barrels a day.
Recently, we had an onshore lease sale in New Mexico that generated the most revenue in the history under your administration, sir, and leadership. Nearly $1 billion in lease in less than 48 hours.
We've also had the offshore energy safety record. This being done is the record for being the most safe on offshore, because we believe in best technology, best science, best practices, that increase safety, environmental stewardship, and reliability.
In short, Mr. President, unleashing the potential of American energy in all its forms is estimated to be $20 trillion in unrealized wealth and 2.7 million new jobs.
I'm proud to say, Mr. President, under your leadership, America will never be held hostage again by any foreign entity for our energy, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Very good. Thank you very much. That's music to my ears. (Laughter.)
On transportation - thank you very much, Ryan - I'd like to ask Elaine Chao, who's doing a terrific job. Secretary, please.
SECRETARY CHAO: Well, the Department of Transportation is hard at work to reduce red tape and overly burdensome regulations - regulations that are duplicative, that don't contribute to safety, that inhibit economic growth and job creation, and also negatively impact the quality of life for all of us.
So the Department has exceeded the 2-to-1 mandate that you've just heard about for regulatory reform in fiscal year 2018. The Department of Transportation withdrew 23 regulations - regulations that didn't make sense, that were nonsensical, that were overly burdensome, that were basically red tape. And we've added only one significant regulation that was needed, saving the taxpayers more than $1.2 billion in regulatory cost.
Compare this with prior to this administration: Out of the Department of Transportation alone, annually, the amount of regulatory cost enacted by the Department of Transportation in the previous administration was $3 billion annually.
In the first year of this administration, the Department achieved $1.2 billion in savings. And in this coming year, the Department expects to achieve an additional $2 billion in regulatory cost savings.
Now, all of this will be accomplished without compromising safety. And on the horizon, the Department will address unrealistic and overly burdensome fuel economy standards to help make newer, safer cars more affordable for working Americans; expand the U.S. lead in commercial space - which the Vice President, you have asked to take the leadership of - by streamlining procedures for commercial space launches.
Six years ago, America was third in commercial space launches. This year, America is number one, and we want to keep it that way.
On the horizon, the Department will also allow the safe operation of drones over the heads of people, out of the line of sight, and at night. And we are looking at pilot programs that will give us more information with which to allow this, rather than individual case-by-case waivers for a drone population that is now $1.2 million as of August 12th of this year.
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