PUTNAM POSTING: Trump as President—Good For Business?
Jennifer Maher | November 14, 2016
Through this intense election season, there has been much discussion about how Donald Trump’s policies would affect the business community. In his victory speech he boasted, “We have a great economic plan—we will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world.” This is certainly a lofty goal, but how do we get there? Let’s examine some issues.
On immigration, Trump seeks to “establish new immigration controls to boost wages and ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first.” Area contractors often seek immigrant workers to fill jobs that they struggle to fill with U.S. citizen applicants. It is also likely that there is a larger number of non-citizen business owners here in Putnam County than one would think. So the President-elect’s plan would need to be examined before determining its effect on our businesses.
Regarding manufacturing, President-elect Trump wants to place barriers to companies wishing to leave the U.S.A. and make it more expensive to produce goods outside our borders. This may be good in that companies would presumably stay in the U.S., but it may not help Putnam attract more manufacturing.
Healthcare is an area that may see improvement under a Trump Administration, though more details are needed. Repealing and replacing Obamacare may be a popular idea, but what are we going to replace it with? How will that help the many business owners and employees who choose to go uninsured and pay the penalty under current rules?
Trump’s best chance to help business lies in regulatory reform. Businesses are drowning under an avalanche of government rules. Wherever possible, efforts should be made to relieve the burden on businesses without compromising public or employee safety, so hopefully he will share details on his plans soon and we as business advocates need to pay attention.
The world in which we do business changed on November 8, 2016. Hopefully it will be for the better.
Jennifer Maher is a partner of J. Philip Real Estate and Founding Chairwoman of the Putnam County Business Council.