Latest news with #AbundanceAgenda
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Put the Libertarians Back in Charge
A common gripe in American politics is that for too long, libertarians have been in charge, wielding too much power. Sometimes this complaint comes from progressives in the mold of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.), who argue that hands-off economic policy—often derisively cast as "neoliberalism"—has fueled the growth and concentration of corporate power at the expense of small business and labor, resulting in an economy that's rigged against the little guy. Sometimes this complaint comes from conservatives, particularly New Right voices who insist that libertarians and classical liberals have ignored the consequences of unfettered free markets for American industrial capacity and rural downscale workers while allowing the left to control major cultural institutions. In this view, libertarianism fails to prioritize the interests of America, American values, and ordinary Americans. The charge has always carried a whiff of desperation, given how little power actual self-identified libertarians have in the corridors of government. But after four years of Joe Biden running a White House that was a hotbed of Warrenite progressivism, and the early months of Donald Trump's presidency marked by all manner of New Right paranoia and kookiness, maybe it's time to revise the complaint: Libertarians don't have enough power. The biggest takeaway from the Trump and Biden years has been this: The libertarians were right. They were especially right about markets, international trade, and the American economy. As a libertarian writer at a libertarian magazine, I am biased. It's my job to say that libertarians are right. But consider recent developments on both sides of the political spectrum. On the left, the loudest and most salient self-critique of Democrats and progressive governance has come from a band of mostly younger writers and thinkers who have organized around a label they call the Abundance Agenda. The Abundance Agenda grew out of the YIMBY ("yes in my backyard") movement, whose fundamental insight was that urban housing prices, especially in hot markets with strong economies such as San Francisco and New York, were too high, largely because building new housing was too hamstrung by bureaucracy, politics, and mandates. Projects took years to permit, if they were permitted at all, and were saddled with regulations that made them far more expensive to build. Meanwhile, Democratic governance—from President Barack Obama's stimulus to Biden's American Rescue Plan—has thrown trillions of dollars at projects with little to show for it. The Abundance Agenda takes this insight and applies it more broadly to the economy, and to energy in particular. Some proponents argue that agenda is at heart a progressive project, about making government more efficient and capable of pulling off public infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail. But this abundance movement's core insights are libertarian—that material progress has been hampered by bureaucratic kludginess, government overreach, and activists using the courts to strangle projects with red tape. Notably, the Warrenite left despises this Abundance Agenda, grousing that it's too unwilling to use antitrust to crack down on concentrated corporate power—essentially the same critique leveled at libertarians. Under Trump, meanwhile, New Right champions of the president have struggled to defend the on-again, off-again, tumultuous imposition of tariffs. In the first months of Trump's second term, markets have repeatedly crashed, and sometimes rebounded, after Trump's tariff announcements. Trump's top advisers have offered wildly differing and often contradictory justifications for his trade policies, but few appear to agree with them, especially among nonaligned voters. By mid-April, two-thirds of independent voters disapproved of the tariffs, and Trump's net economic approval among unaligned voters was at negative 29, a record low. Critics might argue that libertarians are to blame for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has set out to reduce government spending and improve government operations. After initially touting $2 trillion in cuts, that figure was backed down to $1 trillion, and then just $150 billion by late 2026. And DOGE may not even achieve that, given its tendency to make basic, obvious errors in its savings claims. But even beyond its math errors and mistakes, one of the most head-scratching features of DOGE has been its reluctance to coordinate or share information with experts and organizations that have spent years putting together specific, actionable plans to cut spending and reduce the size of government. The libertarians aren't in charge. But the lesson of the last decade of politics is: They should be. The post Put the Libertarians Back in Charge appeared first on
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Congress convince America it can get things done again?
A bipartisan group in Congress recruited Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy earlier this month to help transform the 'Abundance Agenda' into legislative action. Maloy, who represents Utah's 2nd Congressional District, became one of the first 30 lawmakers to join the Build America Caucus with the goal of removing government obstacles to housing, energy and infrastructure. The burden bureaucratic rules place on local leaders is what first drove Maloy to enter Republican politics. So when she received a phone call to launch an initiative to roll back federal overregulation — coming from a Democratic colleague — she said she 'almost drove off the road.' 'We were speaking the same language,' Maloy told the Deseret News. 'That's the kind of political alignment that doesn't always come along. And when it does, you've got to take advantage of it.' What was once a conservative talking point is now a bipartisan movement, according to Maloy, as office holders grow sick of how long it takes to get things done — and the costs of those delays are passed on to taxpayers. The group held its first meeting last week, Maloy said, to address a problem disproportionately affecting Utah: affordable housing. To help this and other sectors of the economy grow, Maloy hopes the caucus will target inefficient policies by: Forcing agencies to respond to a permitting request within a certain time frame. Requiring greater transparency about why requests are denied earlier in the process. Reducing redundant oversight between agencies. In 2024 and 2025, Maloy introduced the Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act which would require federal agencies to replace individual review processes with quicker 'permits by rule.' Maloy said she is currently 'testing the theory' that permitting reform has bipartisan support as she lobbies Democrat lawmakers in support of her bill, which would also give agencies just 30 days to grant applications. 'Those are all things that can get easy bipartisan support,' Maloy said. 'We've reached a critical point where the problem is clear to everyone.' Around two-thirds of the Beehive State is managed by Washington, D.C., — more than any other state except Nevada. This has made many Utah projects subject to intense delays caused by federal review. The TransWest Express Transmission Line Project, an example often cited by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, would transfer power along a 730-mile path from Wyoming to Nevada, crossing the entire state of Utah from Vernal to St. George. At a recent 'Abundance Agenda policy forum," Cox said that plans for the project first crossed his desk in 2009, when he was a Sanpete County Commissioner. The plans did not receive final approval from federal agencies until 2023. During that time, nothing had changed — nothing to alter the route, or to protect wildlife, or to increase safety, Cox said. The only thing that had changed was the cost of the project, which had tripled. 'If you're taking 14 years or 15 years to just get approvals to build something, then we are broken,' Cox said at the event last week. 'When I say we've become really stupid this is what I'm talking about. That should never happen.' The first executive order of Cox's second term sought to streamline the state permitting process by allowing projects to be reviewed under more general standards and by allowing plants to update their facilities without having to undergo a new review. This policy was then made permanent in a largely bipartisan vote. State Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, who sponsored the companion legislation, HB85, said this is an example of 'abundance' in action, where a non-zero-sum mindset has made it easier to build. 'There are opportunities for us to improve the permitting process without weakening environmental regulations,' Clancy said. 'We can build better, more efficiently without sacrificing the robust standards that we have.' But there is only so much the state can do. The main roadblocks to large infrastructure projects 'are federal in nature,' according to Thomas Hochman, the director of infrastructure policy at the Foundation for American Innovation. And there is no worse offender, Hochman said, than the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA — a law enacted in 1969 that requires projects to undergo a review by federal agencies that routinely take 3-5 years, and sometimes longer. The lags imposed by NEPA have produced counterproductive results that often hurt the environmental features the law was meant to protect, Hochman said. One example where this has happened is in the case of the U.S. Forest Service attempting to make wildfire protection plans, Hochman said. But in many cases before the plans are approved, major wildfires have already swept through the area. 'A lot of these so-called environmental laws, end up getting in the way of the environmental protection that they aim to ensure in the first place,' Hochman said. 'Stories like that are the sorts of things that I hope this caucus focuses on.' While an overhaul to NEPA is unlikely, Hochman said there are smaller permitting reforms that the Build America Caucus can include in infrastructure bills that eliminate unnecessary steps in the process. Making these moves at the federal level will do more than speed up projects — it will begin rebuilding Americans' confidence that they live in a country that can actually get things done, according to Chris Koopman, CEO of the Utah-based Abundance Institute. While President Donald Trump's flurry of executive orders has 'completely changed the conversation' on streamlining government regulations, Koopman said, Congress needs to take action to make the change in trajectory permanent. 'It's the difference between a patch and a solution,' Koopman said. 'If we want to see this for the long run, it has to be a bipartisan effort so it can survive the shifting politics of each point in time.' Over the past several decades, the United States has chosen 'paperwork over progress,' Koopman said, with NEPA representing 'the single greatest procedural barrier to American progress.' Reforming federal regulations to encourage innovation will allow the public and private sectors to raise up the skyscrapers, dams and technologies that made America great, and in doing so, will rebuild faith in U.S. institutions, Koopman said. 'That's where I think the bipartisan Build America Caucus is really going to play a key role here is being a voice within the halls saying, 'It's time to build again,'' Koopman said.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Cox: Utah's housing crisis demands tough conversations with cities
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday he is preparing to have 'uncomfortable, hard' conversations with cities this year about building more high density housing. As the closing keynote speaker at Stanford University's Abundance Agenda policy forum, Cox said the state is ready to use a more hands-on approach after struggling to get cities to make municipal affordable housing plans. 'We tried to do it the nice way, and if you want us to do it the heavy way we'll do that too,' Cox said. 'I'm okay being the bad guy on this one.' Cox recognized that cities have had a lot to keep up with: during the past two years since Cox launched his initiative to catalyze 35,000 starter homes by 2028 the Legislature has approved at least 15 bills reforming zoning, financing and inspection for affordable homes. One of the most significant pieces of legislation would make $300 million in public investment funds available to help local lenders offer low-interest loans for developers building affordable homes. The other reforms specifically mentioned by Cox would allow condominiums to qualify for these low-interest loans and would update litigation protection around condos to decrease insurance costs. 'I'm at the stage where I'm just throwing everything against the wall and seeing if anything sticks and actually makes a difference,' Cox said. As he has on a number of other occasions, Cox touted Utah's streak of No. 1 rankings which he said were the result of residents' ability to reject zero-sum thinking. But, Cox said, the biggest obstacle to addressing Utah's housing crisis might be public opinion. While Utahns worry about their children not being able to afford to live near them, Cox said, that fear is not always tied to an understanding that affordability follows from increased supply. Speaking to students, scholars and policy advocates, Cox highlighted a recent appropriation Utah lawmakers made for a public opinion campaign about the importance of high density construction like the Daybreak development in South Jordan. 'Showing some real wins, some places where people love to live where there's actual density just helps change that narrative,' Cox said. 'I think we just need to do better PR when it comes to to building and growth.' In 2025, the Utah Legislature gave $1 million to Utah Workforce Housing Advocacy, a non-profit trying to raise awareness about affordable housing through its Demand More Supply initiative. A year earlier, the Legislature gave another $1 million to the organization. Utah Workforce Housing Advocacy was created in 2023 by Craig Weston, a high-end developer; Derek Brown, later elected as Utah attorney general; Matt Lusty, Cox's campaign manager; and Steve Waldrip, later appointed as Cox's senior housing adviser, who remains a member of the unpaid board. 'I've learned that that we need to do better on the messaging side of this, trying to get the public on our side I think is really important,' Cox said. 'Our big focus has been on our kids and grandkids.' Utah's founding was based on the positive-sum mindset of pioneers settling an unwelcoming land, Cox said in his opening remarks. In order to maintain the state's success he said residents will need to prioritize abundance by rejecting 'false choices' between growth and quality of life. Cameron Diehl, the executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, has worked closely with the Legislature in recent years to bring down housing costs while maintaining local control. On Thursday, Diehl pointed out, the Wasatch Front Regional Council considered five station area plans in Draper, Taylorsville and West Jordan around transit stops, looking to accommodate 15,000 housing units. 'Cities want to see more affordable home ownership opportunities,' Diehl said. 'But we plan for housing, we don't build the housing, and we can't control the market forces.'
