Getting America Back to Work

By Andrew F. Puzder

Over the last two months, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a robust American economy into disarray, completely shutting down major business sectors and putting millions of people out of work overnight. With so much at stake and with all options seemingly on the table, it is crucial that we commit ourselves to the long-term goal of restoring the sorts of free-market policies that led to the Trump Economic Boom prior to the China Virus crisis. Although massive government interventions that Barack Obama pursued following the Great Recession might presently appear beneficial or even essential, a return to Obama’s “new normal” of stagnant growth would lead to disastrous and persisting economic damage. We must instead return, as soon as is safely possible, to the Trump model of economic prosperity that produced the strongest labor market in modern history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Release date: Apr 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781641771566

Andrew F. Puzder

Andrew F. Puzder is a Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. He is the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc., and was President Trump's first nominee for Secretary of Labor.

Book preview

ENCOUNTER BROADSIDES

Inaugurated in the fall of 2009, Encounter Broadsides are a series of timely pamphlets and e-books from Encounter Books. Uniting an 18th century sense of public urgency and rhetorical wit (think The Federalist Papers, Common Sense) with 21st century technology and channels of distribution, Encounter Broadsides offer indispensable ammunition for intelligent debate on the critical issues of our time. Written with passion by some of our most authoritative authors, Encounter Broadsides make the case for ordered liberty and the institutions of democratic capitalism at a time when they are under siege from the resurgence of collectivist sentiment. Read them in a sitting and come away knowing the best we can hope for and the worst we must fear.

INTRODUCTION

THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS created both a humanitarian and an economic crisis. When it ends, we will mourn the lives lost, but we need not long mourn the economic costs. The economy will rebound, and with astounding speed, if capitalism is allowed to work its magic.

First and foremost, we need to help people and businesses through this crisis. But when the crisis is over the economy must reignite, and for that we need policies that encourage businesses to grow and hire, rather than policies that encourage government dependence and discourage work.

That’s the lesson of President Obama’s tenure in office compared to President Trump’s. The Obama administration discouraged growth by raising taxes and expanding the government through laws and regulations to an extent FDR would have envied. Businesses were reluctant to grow and create jobs. As a result, Obama presided over eight years of anemic growth and a stagnant labor market.

President Trump passed a tax cut for people and businesses and took a machete to the jungle of rules and regulations promulgated under Obama. The economy grew and the labor market flourished. In fact, before COVID-19 hit the United States, we had the strongest labor market in modern history.

That labor market strength was due to President Trump’s business-friendly economic