Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump on Thursday stopped by the National Association of Home Builders’ midyear board of directors meeting in Miami with a message: He’ll cut taxes and regulation.
Citing a statistic he attributed to NAHB, Trump asserted that 25% of the total cost of a new home is due to government regulation. “What’s happening with regulation – horrible,” he said. “In the last five years, regulations on building homes have increased by 29%.”
“Over-regulation, which is a big problem, is costing our economy $2 trillion a year,” said Trump. “You are a big beneficiary of over-regulation, because there’s nobody other than, I would say, the energy industry, that is over-regulated more than the home building industry. Nobody.”
Calling home building “the biggest business in the United States,” Trump praised his father and the business he was in: “My father built houses.,” he said. “That’s where I grew up.”
He added, “If you can build a home, you can build anything.”
Earlier in the day, Gene Sperling, economic advisor to Democratic Candidate Hillary Clinton, addressed the group.
