Economic optimism

Speaking of the business climate, Donald Trump’s Cabinet selections offer encouragement that the new administration will follow through on campaign promises to roll back or stall a federal regulatory state that grew to historic levels under Barack Obama.

For instance, Mr. Trump’s pick for Labor secretary, fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, has been an outspoken opponent of progressive efforts to jack the minimum wage beyond reason, noting that such a policy will kill jobs and hasten automation. The nominee to run the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has actively fought many of Mr. Obama’s job-killing environmental regulations. And Rep. Tom Price, the president-elect’s selection for the Department of Health and Human Services, has long argued that the bureaucratic rules have choked the nation’s small businesses. Those who create jobs are excited about the near future. “The continued onslaught of regulation over the last eight years — that probably has been pretty much our No. 1 overall concern as manufacturers,” Jason Andringa, CEO of an Iowa machinery company, told the Wall Street Journal.

The head of a Chicago bottle manufacturer had a similar perspective. “If government can stimulate business to hire more, rather than vilify us, that’s going to be a better milieu,” he told the Journal.

Mr. Trump’s attitude might help improve the horrid conditions entrepreneurs have endured over the past decade. The Obama administration set a new record for imposing major regulations — those with price tags of $100 million or more — while tolerating an atmosphere in which business deaths exceeded business births for the first time in more than 30 years.

“I don’t think there has been a president in my lifetime who has been more hostile to business than Obama,” wrote Ed Rogers in 2015 in a blog for The Washington Post.

We can be thankful those days are almost gone.

In response to your Wednesday front-page story, “Clerk jailed on charge of murder”:

In my opinion, the very most that Raad Sunna should be charged with is manslaughter. He was, at the time of the shooting, responsible for protecting the store’s property. Although his reaction might be deemed “excessive,” it is clear that the teenagers were in the act of committing a crime. Among other considerations, I was glad to see he was entitled to bail.

I do hope to see follow-up stories that include some more comments from the district attorney’s office.

Regarding your recent story, “Activists push for removal of UNLV teacher”:

This country is so backward now that activists want teachers removed from classrooms for wanting the law obeyed, while child molesters are protected by the teacher union.

Since the Rogers Foundation started what is probably going to turn out to be a standoff between taxpayers and the local government, maybe they should just eat the bill for educating all the illegals and their children. You want it, you pay for it.

Let’s also leave it to the Rogers Foundation to bill the activists who are involved because apparently they think they have the right to determine how to spend our tax dollars. Most of them haven’t even held a job yet, and yet they think they have the right to take the taxes that I and other law-abiding citizens pay and direct them where they want them to go.

I don’t remember relinquishing any of my rights — and I don’t think the UNLV professor who now must grovel for his job wanted to give up his rights, either.

I am sick and tired of hearing about eliminating the Electoral College because, the argument goes, Hillary Clinton got a couple million more voters and therefore the Electoral College doesn’t represent the population’s true feeling. As usual, this is just the part of the story that benefits liberals (or progressives, whatever they are calling themselves this week).

In fact Mrs. Clinton received about 3.3 million more votes in California than did Donald Trump and about 1.5 million more in New York state. Those two states have more than enough votes to overcome the rest of the country and defeat the will of the people. In other words, two states have more than enough votes to steal the election for their candidate.

This is why the Electoral College is so valuable. It spreads the vote among all 50 state and gives small and medium states a voice. Somehow, I don’t think it is in the best interest of the other 48 and to let two states trump (no pun intended) the will of the rest of us.

I have to congratulate Jane Ann Morrison for her very good Thursday column, “Rude Reid used power to great effect.” She describes Harry Reid to a “T.”

This politician came to politics as a poor young man from Searchlight with barely a penny to his name. Now he’s a multimillionaire who lives in one of the most expensive areas of the valley. He is one of the most slick and slippery politicians.

If you ask the question what has he done for Nevada after all these years as a U.S. senator, you need only one hand to count. But look at his sons and relatives. They all have key positions in many company and government offices.

I cannot wait for Harry Reid and Barack Obama to be out of politics and be nobodies.