Trump is doing what no president before has done: He’s asking the American people for ways to cut the size of government

Do you remember the last time a president made a direct appeal to the citizenry for help in accomplishing a campaign promise? Me, either. That’s because it hasn’t happened in, like, forever.

But President Donald J. Trump just asked the American people to help him achieve one of his principle campaign promises: Making the federal government smaller and more efficient.

As reported by the Washington Examiner, the president made his appeal Monday, inviting the public to help him find ways to reorganize the government and slash waste, fraud, abuse and duplication to save taxpayers billions of dollars per year.

The effort, embodied in an executive order titled, “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch,” is part of Trump’s push to slash the federal budget, which is said to contain a historic downsizing of the federal workforce. (RELATED: Trump budget takes axe to federal workforce.)

One official told the Washington Examiner, “All Americans will be able to submit suggestions and ideas on how to make government work better for them.”

The effort will be led by Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, a budget hawk and former member of the House.

“Based on this input, we will develop a detailed plan to make the federal government work better, reorganizing, consolidating, and eliminating where necessary. In other words, making the federal government more efficient and very, very cost productive. So we’re going to do something, I think, very, very special,” Trump said after signing the order.

Lest some critics see this as little more than window dressing, there is every reason to take Trump at his word.

First and foremost, Trump pledged early on to “drain the swamp” in Washington, and while he was, in large part, talking about the special interest infestation in the nation’s capital, he was also referring to reductions in the size, reach, and scope of the federal bureaucracy.

To that end, Trump told business leaders in January that he hoped to slash federal regulations – piled high during the Obama years – by as much as 75 percent. BigGovernment.news reported:

In a meeting with business leaders in the White House…, Trump’s first official full-day in office, the billionaire real estate mogul-turned-politician said he thinks it is possible to cut three-quarters of all federal regulations, and “maybe more” – while still ensuring that Americans are safe and protected.

Next, a look at who Trump has appointed to be Cabinet secretaries tells us a lot about his ‘cutting government’ mindset:

— EPA chief Scott Pruitt, as attorney general for the state of Oklahoma, regularly sued the agency he now runs, to fight back against job-killing over-regulation during the Obama years. Indeed, Pruitt – who, like the president, correctly notes that so-called “climate change” is nothing more than an elaborate hoax aimed at killing off capitalism and controlling the population – wants to refocus the agency’s attention on its founding purpose: Ensure that clean air and water regulations are enforced, which will necessitate reductions in funding and staff.

— Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former GOP presidential contender and governor of Texas, is also not duped by the global warming hoax. As Energy secretary, no doubt he shares Trump’s vision of curbing regulations so that the country’s energy sector can thrive. Like the president, he understands that energy is the engine driving the American economy. As governor of Texas, an oil-and-gas-producing behemoth, he also knows how restrictive energy regulations can be for the industry.

— Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a school-choice, local control advocate, meaning she will push for policies that devolve control from Washington back to locally-elected school boards, where education decisions should be made. (RELATED: Just two men are preventing school choice in Texas.)

“Parents know better than any politician or administrator the unique needs of each of their children,” DeVos said, speaking to The Council of the Great City Schools, a group of the nation’s largest urban school districts. “Time and again, when parents are empowered to take charge of their children’s education, when they have quality options we see the results for students. For me this is just common sense.”

When you wield less regulatory authority as a federal agency, you necessarily require fewer personnel and a smaller budget.

— Dr. Ben Carson, head of Housing and Urban Development, knows as a native of Detroit the failures of federal housing policy. And while he didn’t actually live in public housing growing up, he lived in the next-closest thing, and still in poverty. So he knows better than any recent head of HUD how flawed the department’s policies are and how they actually serve to keep people in poverty, not help lift them out. Like The New York Times noted, Carson rejects, not embraces, programs that once helped sustain him and his family growing up.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

WashingtonExaminer.com

BigGovernment.news

Freedom.news