The Government Agency Standing in the Way of Trump's New Roaring Twenties
Donald Trump’s presidency has been a time of economic prosperity, wage increases, and record low unemployment. After decades of economic policy that prioritized Wall Street over Main Street, and trade policy that favored corporatism and Big Labor at the expense of America’s working men and women, Trumponomics has righted our economic ship — the economy is roaring and the future of Main Street is hopeful anew.
Tax and regulatory reforms have created an environment in which businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-up firms can flourish — American workers have the opportunity again to succeed on their own merit. A recent piece from Investor's Business Daily revealed that under President Trump “regulations are being slashed at a record rate,” and a report by the American Action Forum (AAF) shows that President Trump is exceeding his own remarkable deregulation goals.
However, there is a curious, even disturbing, outlier to the administration’s rollback of government interference that characterized the Swamp before President Trump’s arrival. A roadblock — a vestige of the previous regime — remains in plain sight.
The Department of Labor (DOL) remains mired in the swampiness of the failed economic dogmas of the Obama years. In the time between Donald Trump’s election and the time he was sworn into office, then-President Obama initiated a series of lawsuits against government contractors through the DOL. At their root, these lawsuits are nothing more than weaponizing the DOL for progressive legal activism, but they have yet to be withdrawn under President Trump despite an extraordinary pro-growth labor environment.
Instead of digging deeper to determine if there is evidence of discrimination and, therefore, merit to these lawsuits, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has pursued “an aggressive agenda to prosecute government contractors who they believe have discriminated in promotions and hiring. There is one problem with these lawsuits: they have no actual evidence of discrimination. The OFCCP relies on statistics in promotions and hiring to prove discrimination. This is a strategy that would give the government unbridled power to second guess corporate governance and put the private sector under constant fear of prosecution if they did not hire and promote using statistical data, as opposed to education, performance, and leadership capabilities.
Basically, the OFCCP has been ignoring all other legitimate factors used in applicant screening and hiring. This out-of-control, rogue government faction is being leveraged by Obama holdovers to harass and sue companies for alleged, unproven discrimination.
While this practice began under the Obama administration, lawsuits have been pursued during the troubled tenure of Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. As the Washington Post reported, “Acosta, who aspired to be a federal judge, had a strategy as secretary to play a safe, inside game running the Labor Department, according to multiple current and former administration officials. He aimed for a balance in his approach to labor policy that would satisfy the White House — while also placating union leaders and Democrats on Capitol Hill.”
Acosta, promoting his own myopic, “play is safe” agenda, allowed Obama-era lawsuits against companies to be pursued on the basis of wage discrimination when there was no evidence of discriminatory action. However, because these allegations are administrative issues, the DOL harassment will continue until President Trump and new leadership at DOL put a stop to it. So far, the OFCCP has been dragging out costly and time-consuming action and refusing to work with companies interested in good-faith efforts to come to resolutions.
Acosta has been forced to resign and the DOL is now under the direction of Secretary Eugene Scalia. The hope is that new Secretary of Labor Scalia, who has earned a reputation of standing firm on Constitutional principles, will not let the ‘resistance’ media, Big Labor’s special interests, or Anti-Trump Democrats stand in his way of doing what’s right and what’s fair. In the current environment, the OFCCP has become a cudgel used by progressive DOL lawyers to advance a myopic, ideological agenda that threatens our continued economic prosperity.
Job creators and their conservative allies are confident that this new leadership at DOL will withdraw a pending lawsuit against Oracle and discontinue practices which led to lawsuits against Google and tech company Palantir. These companies — all companies — should fairly compete in the marketplace without fear of baseless government vendettas. Ronald Reagan was right when he said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'”
For our economy to grow so even more Americans see better days, the principles of fairness and free enterprise, not progressive politics, must govern the OFCCP. It’s free enterprise, not government interference, that promotes the innovation and economic growth necessary for Trumponomics to succeed.
Trump has praised Secretary Scalia saying, “Eugene Scalia is one of the most qualified people ever confirmed as Secretary of Labor. He will use his skills as he has over the years—and he has built an extremely distinguished career—to fight and win for the American workforce.”
I trust that the secretary will live up to his reputation and President Trump’s admiration, and my hope is that he will heed Ronald Reagan’s wisdom by vanquishing the DOL’s Obama-era regulations and lawsuits.
Jerry Rogers is the founder of Capitol Allies and the host of “The Jerry Rogers Show” on WBAL NewsRadio. Twitter: @CapitolAllies.
