Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis
This presidential action orders federal agencies to implement measures to combat the high cost of living, which the order attributes to the previous administration's policies.
The action focuses on reducing housing costs, lowering healthcare expenses, eliminating regulations increasing the cost of goods, boosting job creation, and removing what the order terms as “harmful climate policies”.
Progress reports are required every 30 days.
Arguments For
- Intended benefits: Reduce the cost of living for American families, increase prosperity for American workers, and restore purchasing power.
- Evidence cited: The order cites the Biden administration's policies as contributing to inflation and increased costs across various sectors (fuel, food, housing, healthcare).
- Implementation methods: The order directs executive departments and agencies to pursue actions to lower housing costs, reduce healthcare expenses, eliminate counterproductive regulations, create employment opportunities and eliminate harmful climate policies.
- Legal/historical basis: The order asserts the President's authority to direct executive agencies to take actions consistent with applicable law to address the economic crisis.
Arguments Against
- Potential impacts: The effectiveness of the prescribed actions in lowering prices significantly is uncertain. Some proposed changes might face legal challenges or necessitate significant legislative changes.
- Implementation challenges: Coordinating multiple executive departments and agencies to implement the order effectively might prove difficult. Resistance from some agencies or stakeholders is possible.
- Alternative approaches: A more comprehensive approach might include targeted tax relief, direct cash payments, or investment in infrastructure to enhance productivity and reduce costs.
- Unintended effects: Some actions might have unintended consequences on the economy, such as disruptions to supply chains or delays in approvals of necessary projects.
Over the past 4 years, the Biden Administration’s destructive policies inflicted an historic inflation crisis on the American people. The Biden Administration not only exploded Government spending, artificially and unsustainably stimulating demand, but it simultaneously made necessary goods and services scarce through a crushing regulatory burden and radical policies designed to weaken American production. Hardworking families today are overwhelmed by the cost of fuel, food, housing, automobiles, medical care, utilities, and insurance.
The order blames the previous Biden administration's policies for causing high inflation and increased costs of living.
It claims this is due to increased government spending, excessive regulation, and policies hindering American production.
The order highlights that American families are facing higher costs across numerous essential goods and services.
In particular, the assault on plentiful and reliable American energy through unnecessary and illegal regulatory demands has driven up the cost of transportation and manufacturing. In addition, the unlawful regulatory mandate on companies to effectively eliminate many or most gas-powered vehicles has resulted in artificial price increases on those popular vehicles to subsidize electric vehicles disfavored by consumers.
The order specifically criticizes energy policies, asserting they have increased transportation and manufacturing costs.
It claims that regulations aimed at phasing out gas-powered vehicles have artificially inflated prices of those vehicles to incentivize electric ones.
Moreover, many Americans are unable to purchase homes due to historically high prices, in part due to regulatory requirements that alone account for 25 percent of the cost of constructing a new home according to recent analysis.
The order cites high housing costs as a significant problem, claiming that regulations account for a substantial portion of new home construction expenses preventing many from homeownership.
In sum, unprecedented regulatory oppression from the Biden Administration is estimated to have imposed almost $50,000 in costs on the average American household, whereas my first-term agenda reduced regulatory costs by almost $11,000 per household. It is critical to restore purchasing power to the American family and improve our quality of life.
The order summarizes its claims by estimating the total cost of regulations under the previous administration on the average American household.
It contrasts this with a claimed reduction in cost during the current President's prior term.
The overall goal is to improve the quality of life for families by restoring purchasing power.
I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker. This shall include pursuing appropriate actions to: lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel. Within 30 days of the date of this memorandum, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy shall report to me and every 30 days thereafter, on the status of the implementation of this memorandum.
The President directs all executive departments and agencies to take immediate action to reduce costs and increase prosperity for American workers.
Specific areas of focus are reducing housing costs, lowering healthcare, removing regulations affecting appliance costs, creating jobs, and eliminating policies deemed to be increasing the costs of food and fuel.
Regular progress reports are required.