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* Latest * Magazine * Current Issue * Archives * Subscribe * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * All Shows * The Reason Roundtable * The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie * The Soho Forum Debates * Just Asking Questions * The Best of Reason Magazine * Why We Can't Have Nice Things * Volokh * Newsletters * Donate * Donate Online * Donate Crypto * Ways To Give To Reason Foundation * Torchbearer Society * Planned Giving * Subscribe * Reason Plus Subscription * Print Subscription Search for: LOGIN FORM Username(Required) Password(Required) Remember Me Login Create new account Forgot password Big Government TRUMP PROMISED TO 'DRAIN THE SWAMP.' HE DID THE OPPOSITE. TOTAL SPENDING UNDER TRUMP NEARLY DOUBLED. NEW PROGRAMS FILLED WASHINGTON WITH MORE BUREAUCRATS. John Stossel | 5.8.2024 1:20 AM Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Media Contact & Reprint Requests (Stossel TV) Presidential candidate Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp!" The "swamp" is the permanent Washington bureaucracy working to perpetuate itself. In 2020, then-President Trump said he was succeeding: "We're draining the Washington swamp!" But it's not true. "He made government bigger," Economist Ed Stringham says in my new video. 'That's going in the wrong direction. Looking through a list of agencies, every single one I could see, there were more employees after his presidency than before." Trump added almost 2 million jobs to the federal workforce. He did make some cuts at the State Department, Labor Department, Education Department, and his own office. But total spending under Trump nearly doubled. Some was in response to COVID-19, but billions in extra spending came before. That spending increased the size of the swamp. New programs filled Washington with more bureaucrats. Trump launched a $6 billion "Farmers to Families" Food Box Program to bring food from farmers to families. Powered By 00:00/00:33 10 Sec Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen arrive at court Next Stay "Last I checked," jokes Stringham, "we have an industry for that. It's called the supermarket industry. It exists for a reason. Markets are good at getting things from farmer to consumer." Trump pandered to women, signing a Women, Peace, and Security Act, the Woman Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Act, the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, a Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. That just made the swamp bigger. Probably permanently. "Once government implements a program," Stringham points out, "it becomes very difficult to roll that back. You've created a whole new constituency of lobbyists who love their new income." Seventy years ago, Congress feared America wouldn't have enough mohair for soldiers' uniforms. So they subsidized mohair production. Today, the military doesn't use mohair. But the subsidy continues. "We're stuck with it," says Stringham, "because now there's a whole group of new people on the payroll who like what they have." At least Trump acknowledges his failure to drain the swamp. "When I said it, it sounded very easy and it was going to happen real fast," he says. "I didn't know the swamp was this dirty and this deep." Elect me again, he promises, and "we will drain the swamp once and for all." I doubt it. Trump doesn't understand the source of the swamp. When a reporter called him out, saying, "You didn't drain the swamp like you said you would," Trump replied, "I did. I fired Comey. I fired a lot of people." "He fired a couple people," replies Stringham, "but hiring additional people for government jobs—that's not draining the swamp; that's making things worse." Much worse, because once you hire government employees, it's nearly impossible to fire them. They "can show up late, not show up at all, show up drunk," says popular YouTuber Armand Curet, who works for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Instead of hiring more bureaucrats, Trump could have turned to the private sector. "Privatize!" exclaims Stringham. "Government doesn't need to be doing all these things. We have markets." Markets work better. They even create things people assume can only be done by government. When I ask people, "Who built NYC's subways?" everyone answers, "Government." But it's not true. Private companies built most of them. Politicians then forbade the entrepreneurs to raise prices from a nickel to a dime, driving them out of business. The city took over the subways and, guess what—raised the price much more. Private enterprise is simply more efficient. America doesn't need the Labor, Agriculture, Commerce Departments. Those things just happen. They work better if government gets out of the way. Trump didn't privatize any department. "He did do some deregulation," I say to Stringham. "Government spending increased dramatically," Stringham replies. "I don't see that as draining the swamp. I see that as making the swamp a lot bigger." There's only one way to drain it, he adds: "Don't have the government in control of so many things." COPYRIGHT 2024 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC. Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup. Email(Required) Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Submit Δ NEXT: Ron DeSantis Says Letting People Buy Cultivated Meat Is Like Forcing Them To Eat Bugs John Stossel is the host and creator of Stossel TV. Big GovernmentGovernmentFederal governmentGovernment SpendingDonald TrumpTrump AdministrationCampaigns/ElectionsElection 2020Election 2024WashingtonD.C.BureaucracyDepartment of StateDepartment of EducationDepartment of LaborCoronavirusPandemicAgricultureFarmingGrocery storesWomenEntrepreneurshipLobbyingCongressMilitarySubsidiesJames ComeyFBIDepartment of Housing and Urban DevelopmentPrivatizationFree MarketsNew York CityPublic transportationBusiness and IndustryDepartment of CommerceRegulationDeregulation Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Media Contact & Reprint Requests Show Comments (54) LATEST TIKTOK'S GOT TROUBLE Thomas W. Hazlett | 5.18.2024 7:00 AM THE REAL REASON FOR SELF-CHECKOUT BANS C. Jarrett Dieterle | 5.18.2024 6:00 AM KAMALA HARRIS IMPLAUSIBLY CLAIMS BIDEN'S MARIJUANA PARDONS NUMBER IN THE 'TENS OF THOUSANDS' Jacob Sullum | 5.17.2024 5:20 PM DANIEL PERRY'S PARDON MAKES A MOCKERY OF SELF-DEFENSE Billy Binion | 5.17.2024 4:59 PM ARE POOR SCHOOLS UNDERFUNDED? IT'S MORE COMPLEX THAN YOU'D THINK. Emma Camp | 5.17.2024 12:47 PM * About * Browse Topics * Events * Staff * Jobs * Donate * Advertise * Subscribe * Contact * Media * Shop * Amazon Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS © 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Notifications