- DSNews - https://dsnews.com -

President Trump Offers Bold Plans, but Few Details

“A new chapter of American greatness is now beginning,” opened President Trump when he addressed Congress on Tuesday night.

Throughout his hour-long speech, the president spoke of many changes and plans he had to “make America great again”—perhaps the most important of which to mortgage professionals were his comments regarding regulation.

“We have undertaken a historic effort to massively reduce job‑crushing regulations, creating a deregulation task force inside of every Government agency; imposing a new rule which mandates that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated,” said Trump, referencing the executive order he signed on February 24 titled, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda. [1]

Though he did not go into the details during his speech, the executive order requires that the task force must be appointed within 60 days and will be responsible for enforcing existing executive orders that already attempt to wrangle increasingly complicated federal regulations, which include President Trump's Executive Order 13771 [2], President Obama's Executive Order 13563 [3], and President Clinton's Executive Order 12866 [4].

Also in February, President Trump signed an executive order titled, “Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System [5],” which calls for a review of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Though the president did not discuss this order during his speech, his reinforcement of his stance on regulation offers a glimpse of what mortgage professionals can expect of this administration.

During Tuesday’s address, the President also spoke of rebuilding America’s infrastructure. “We’ve spent billions of dollars overseas, while letting our infrastructure crumble,” he said. ”America must put its own citizens first because only then can we truly make America great again.”

He promised that dying industries will come back to life, and heroic veterans will get the care they need. “Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new bridges and roads,” he said. “The drug epidemic will slow down and stop. We will keep our promises to the American people. “

Other areas President Trump wants to improve include an overhaul and simplification of the U.S. tax code, a revision or elimination of the Affordable Care Act, an increase in defense spending, tightening of our borders, and a massive stimulus plan to pay for rebuilding the country’s antiquated infrastructure. However, no details were given about the next steps the president plans to take to accomplish these goals.

“We must start the engine of the American economy again,” he said, “and make it much harder for companies to leave our country.” He said that taxes on American companies are too high. “We need to reduce taxes on companies so that they can compete anywhere and with anyone,” he said.

As proof that his plans are already taking effect, he said that since his election, Ford, GM, Intel, Walmart and other companies have announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the U.S. and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs. He also said that the stock market has gained almost $3 trillion since his election.

Reacting to the President’s speech, Lindsey Piegza, Chief Economist at Stifel Fixed Income said, "Going forward, the market appears elated by the notion of pro-growth policies from Washington, but confidence will only carry improvements for so long. At some point, political promises will need to turn into reality in order to justify and sustain real improvement in the underlying economy.”

Click here [6] to read the full transcript of the president's address.