Building Up vs. Tearing Down.

• Position: POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

Pres. Donald Trump's remarks that provoked an unprecedented storm of hate and outrage after Charlottesville were made at a press conference about... infrastructure. The President explained why our infrastructure is in such terrible shape. There is the permitting process that delays projects for years--or decades--and causes costs to double, triple, quintuple, or more.

This resonated with me. My father was a modestly successful general contractor. He built small commercial buildings like grocery stores, and affordable housing. He could have built more. "Old age and smashed feet" did not stop him. The city's inspection process finally did. It always was a problem. He might have to sit around for days waiting for an inspector to deign to show up. Then the inspector could red flag a project just because he was having a bad day or felt disrespected.

So, a man who built sound, durable buildings--who could, and sometimes did, do everything from surveying the land to digging the foundation to finishing the roof--whose livelihood was at risk if he did a bad job, was at the mercy of a government employee who might not know how to hold a hammer or even understand the rules he was enforcing. It got worse and worse. Only the big guys who could afford lawyers and accountants, and who had "connections," could stay in business. Houses got more and more expensive--and they got worse, not better. Most now are thrown together with sticks and stucco.

Big projects, such as nuclear power plants, are even tougher. The U.S. never will regain dominance in that industry without a massive overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A plant that is built in two years in Taiwan cannot even get a permit in less than 10 years here--and that is for a plant that is exactly the same as ones that have been functioning flawlessly for decades. If you have a really innovative design, one that would be even safer, it takes more than three years for bureaucrats even to evaluate the proposal. Meanwhile, you cannot even construct a prototype.

It is like this for all U.S. industries, including medicine. Pres. Trump sent a signal that he was going to start cutting useless red tape. Would this be good for black people? Poor people? Industry? Taxpayers? Absolutely yes, yes, yes, and yes. It would be a start for making America great again.

However, the signal set off panic among swamp dwellers: the 3,000,000 bureaucrats who block productive work; lobbyists who advocate for rules to...