Page 217 - TrumpsEconEra_Flat

Trump’s Economic Era

dictates what students learn in each grade, forcing
teachers to teach to the test. Strict rules throw
spontaneity and creativity out the window. Everyone
has to know the rules, and everyone has to comply.
When a doctor sees a Medicare or Medicaid
patient, a specialist has to verify that the patient falls
under one of the 140,000 different categories for the
physician to receive payment. In this world of rules, no
human being is in
charge—we are all
Everyone has to know the subject to the letter of
rules, and everyone has to the law—and once
comply with the rules. authorities establish the
rules, they are almost
impossible to change.
Each government agency has guidelines.
Government guidelines are a way of establishing
standards without the legality of mandatory rules.
Businesses are troubled when the Labor Department has
one set of rules, and the IRS has a different set of rules.
For example, there is a one hundred page FDA rule
requiring calorie counts of pizza toppings!

Principles provide broad goals while leaving
human beings in charge. For example, nursing homes
should be safe and clean and should serve wholesome
food; someone is in charge when principles apply.
Some local person has the authority to make sure the
nursing home meets the spirit of the law. There is
always someone who can enforce the principles.

President Trump believes that inflexible rules bog
down economies as if they were standing in quicksand.
The economy remains in a perpetual trough where
unemployment and underemployment act as a curse on

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