美国国家公共电台 NPR President Trump To Cut Regulations By '75 Percent' — How Real Is That?

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

President Trump¹ made an eyebrow-raising claim yesterday. As part of an effort to make America more business friendly, the president said he thinks his administration can eliminate 75 percent or more of government regulations. Three out of every four government regulations can be eliminated, he said. Even conservative economists² are skeptical³ of this idea. Though, Republicans do seem serious about some kind of regulatory reform. Here's NPR's Chris Arnold.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE⁴: It's been said that President Trump likes to have an adversary⁵, and at a meeting with the CEOs of big manufacturing companies, the enemy was government regulations that stifle⁶ business. Mr. Trump said, quote, "we're going to be cutting regulation massively."

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The problem with the regulation that we have right now is that you can't do anything. You can't - I have people that tell me they have more people working on regulations than they have doing product.

ARNOLD: Of course, there are all kinds of government regulations. OSHA aims to keep workers safe. The FDA makes sure we have food that's safe to eat. The EPA protects the environment. Mr. Trump said basically there will be no downside.

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TRUMP: We're going to take care of the environment. We're going to take care of safety and all of the other things we have to take care of.

ARNOLD: And then the president said this.

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TRUMP: We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent, maybe more, but by 75 percent.

ARNOLD: Now, it's a bit unclear what that means. Seventy-five percent of all government regulations, 75 percent of the burden on American businesses overall? We called up the Cato Institute. It's a free market think tank. Peter Van Doren edits Cato's quarterly journal which is called Regulation, and we played Trump's claim for him.

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TRUMP: We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent.

ARNOLD: So what's your take? Is that sort of a realistic statement?

PETER VAN DOREN: (Laughter).

ARNOLD: Or does that make any sense or what's your take on it?

VAN DOREN: Well, it's not - I mean, President Trump - he's about signaling.

ARNOLD: That's how Van Doren describes it.

VAN DOREN: We have all these fancy words for what you might call lying. (Laughter) And so this is a game. And Trump is signaling his supporters that he's serious.

ARNOLD: But Van Doren says no president's been able to undo⁷ that many regulations ever, so he says it won't be 75 percent or even massive.

VAN DOREN: I think it's going to be probably somewhere in the moderate to small range.

ARNOLD: Still, many Republicans do have serious ambitions about cutting red tape. Philip Wallach is a political scientist at the more liberal-leaning Brookings Institution. He says lawmakers are introducing bills, for example...

PHILIP WALLACH: The Scrub Act which would create a commission specifically designed to find old regulations that are not worth their costs and get them revised or deleted.

ARNOLD: Wallach thinks there could be some meaningful culling⁸ of regulations. He says some of that might be a good thing. And he says Republicans do not have 60 votes in the Senate, so he says Democrats⁹ in some cases could block the repeal¹⁰ of what they think are really good regulations. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

6 stifle   

vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止

参考例句：

• She tried hard to stifle her laughter.她强忍住笑。
• It was an uninteresting conversation and I had to stifle a yawn.那是一次枯燥无味的交谈，我不得不强忍住自己的呵欠。

7 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

8 culling   

n.选择，大批物品中剔出劣质货v.挑选，剔除( cull的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mathematicians turned to culling periodic solutions. 数学家们转而去挑选周期解。 来自辞典例句
• It took us a week to find you, a week of culling out prejudice and hatred. 我们花了一个星期的时间找到你们，把偏见和憎恨剔除出去。 来自演讲部分

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。