From nahb.com
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed to cut regulations that are hurting the housing and economic recovery.
Speaking before the National Association of Home Builders board of directors at its midyear meeting in Miami, Trump said overregulation is costing the economy $2 trillion per year.
“No one other than the energy industry is regulated more than the homebuilding industry,” said Trump. “Twenty-five percent of the cost of a home is due to regulation. I think we should get that down to about 2 percent.”
Laying out his plan to create more jobs, lower taxes and reduce burdensome regulations, Trump said, “We will impose a temporary moratorium order on new agency regulations. We’ll cancel all illegal and overreaching executive orders signed by President (Barack) Obama. We will eliminate all regulations that kill jobs. We will remove the bureaucrats that only know how to kill jobs and replace them with experts who know how to create jobs without regulations.”
As part of his program to spur job and economic growth, Trump promised a major tax simplification plan to reduce the tax code to three brackets and ensure that all small businesses will be taxed at no more than 15 percent.
“Everyone’s taxes will go down under my plan,” he said.
Additionally, Trump said he will end corporate inversions and repeal the estate tax, commonly referred to as the death tax.
“I know so many families that have been destroyed by the death tax,” he said. “They end up losing their business or have to sell their business. Farmers are hit hard, housing companies are hit hard.”
Noting that his father was a homebuilder, Trump expressed a deep affinity for the industry.
“A homebuilder taught me everything I know,” he said. “There is no greater thing you can do. If you can build a home, you can build anything.”
Trump’s speech to the NAHB board came one day after a top economic adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addressed the group.
“Their presence at our board meeting conveys the important role that the nation’s housing industry will play in the upcoming elections and reaffirms that housing must remain a national priority,” said NAHB Chairman Ed Brady, a homebuilder and developer from Bloomington, Ill.