On Thursday the Senate Committee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions will hold confirmation hearings for
Andy Puzder to be secretary of labor. Puzder is the most important nominee for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, because Trump campaigned on a promise of bringing back jobs — and Puzder knows how to do that.
Trump’s presidency will ultimately be judged not by the wall, not by the existence of transgender bathrooms, not by the eradication of ISIS, but by whether people feel they are economically better off. In order to believe that they are better off, people need not just jobs, but the prospect of upward mobility. They want to feel as though they are on an upward escalator, not that they are standing still.
That’s where Andy Puzder comes in. If confirmed as Labor Department secretary, he will be able to make it easier for employers to create jobs by making sense of the onslaught of regulations that his predecessor, Thomas Perez, imposed on employers. He would be in a position to roll back those that are unduly burdensome and impede hiring.