Trump orders regulations cut to help small business

While signing an executive order Monday, President Trump declared that it was “now almost impossible” to start a small business given federal rules and regulations.

Roughly 679,000 entrepreneurs may disagree. That is the number of new businesses that have been created in a 12month period between March 2014 to March 2015, according to data from the Department of Labor.

In fact, other than a small dip in 2013, the number of businesses newly created has risen steadily since 2010, when the entrepreneurial economy bottomed out following the financial crisis. Joining the ranks of first- time business owners include more women — particularly among African- American women — and Millennials.

Business owners, chamber of commerce lobbyists and Republican lawmakers insist that rules and regulations and costs to comply with them — including licensing requirements, inspections, disclosure forms, guidance on work performance — inhibit entrepreneurs looking to start a nail salon or the next Google. And Trump has said for months that they will have his ear.

Surrounded by small- business owners, Trump signed an executive order Monday that will require agencies cut two existing regulations for every new rule in- troduced. The order also sets a cap on the cost of new regulations.

“An unelected fourth branch of government — the regulatory branch — is holding our smallbusiness sector back while imposing unnecessary costs on larger companies too,” U. S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue said in a speech earlier this month.

Several studies have sought to calculate the financial cost of regulatory compliance. Federal regulations cost small firms — fewer than 50 employees — $ 11,724 per employee, according to a 2014 study by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Still, empirical evidence that regulations inhibit business creation is difficult to find, says Wes David Sine, professor of entrepreneurship at Cornell University.

The rebounding but sluggish numbers posted in years after 2008 also underscores the lack of capital available for entrepreneurs, says Aaron Klein, policy director of the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution.