earlier, we have been on the s of this fight, and it is really an honor for our region of california to be recognized. thank you so much for this award. thank you. [applause] host: i cannot think of a more appropriate way to say thank you to all of you, to and cpac 2018, man th awarding a with a prize for freedom. thank you all so much. ♪ [applause] >> i love that song, welcome to the jungle. >> who picked the walking music, my goodness. >> good afternoon, patriots!

full disclosure, somebody told me backstage about a certain pair of socks that mr. mulvaney is wearing. >> those are my captain america socks. daughter wanted to see them on television, so thank you, caroline. host: thank you so much for being here today. today, we will focus on three core areas, regulation, the budget and tax cuts. director mulvaney: in 15 minutes. reducingnderstand that regulations is one of the president's top parties for his administration. something that we do not hear enough about. we have heard a lot about the tax cuts, which we will hear about in a moment. but when it comes to

regulations, it is like it goes hand-in-hand with the. rollback and regulations. can you give us a progress report? devin nunes: sure. -- director mulvaney: i think the reason he did not hear about it is because it is going very well. we tried to talk about it every chance we get. [applause] up, weime we tally it have repealed about 1500 era regulations which are either stalled or repealed or cut. you saw this flurry of activity across all of the agencies this year, because the obama administration had done a bunch of things on the way out to that were easy to undo. but the really big stuff, they worked hard on, like the "clean , "waters of the

u.s.." i do not think you will see as much deregulation in the second year of the administration, but you will start to see the really bigpuzzle start to come togethe. the impact has been tremendous. i flew in from the middle east talking to american chambers of commerce. anywhere they go in the world, it is optimism among american business has never ever been higher. they think it has to do as much with deregulation as taxes. doreen: that is huge. so what role has the omb played in reducing regulations? dir. mulvaney: for those of you that don't know what we do, no one knows what we do. there is a saying that no one outside the beltway has never heard of us and anyone inside does not know what we do. we like it like that because we do a bit of everything. everyone knows us because of the budget. they call me the budget director. the m is management.

we work with every single cabinet agency on every major regulation. the department of commerce, if they want a new regulation, they have to work through us to see the light of day. we are intimately involved with every single piece of regulation and as a result deregulation. when we first got here, the hardest part about deregulating was that the government had forgotten how to do it. it had been such a long time since any administration had told the government to deregulate that there were no forms. there was no check the box for deregulation. many of the people who were working at these agencies were not born the last time there was a major deregulation for the united states of america. --it has been the president i think there were four cabinet meetings in a row where the number one topic was how are you doing on deregulation's? it is a priority and we are happy to help do that.

[applause] deneen: so can you give us an idea of one of the most costly regulations you have come across like anything off the chart ridiculous? dir. mulvaney: the two big ones, the waters of the u.s., saying a roadside ditch is a stream, and the one the president talks about on clean power plants. that was an obama administration way to bankrupt the coal industry and the folks who work in that industry. those are the two big things. the stuff we did last year does not get the same amount of attention because it was smaller self. -- smaller stuff. every new regulation he wanted to old ones. at the end of the year, the total was 22 to 1, 22 gone for a new one in. deneen: great. [applause] deneen: it has been the media,

there has been some discrepancy is it really 22, is that -- but thank you for clarifying. kimberly: dir. mulvaney: they hate it because it is working. we saw the impact of deregulation before we saw the economic impact of tax. we will talk about taxes and a second. what the media hates is all this talk about deregulation, they told everyone if the president was elected, the air would be dirty, the water would be dirty, you could not go outside. the exact opposite has been true. it is working and the media does not deal with that well. deneen: what is the impact and reduction in regulations having on our economy? dir. mulvaney: i can quantify it for you, but i will give you more anecdotal stuff. the president went to south texas after the hurricanes and was meeting with folks whose businesses and homes have been destroyed. he came back and told a story about a couple yet met that she

had met who have lost their home, car, and small business. he was expecting them to be completely distraught, and they were very optimistic. they were cheerful because they said, mr. president, we know the work you are doing to get business -- to get government off our backs will allow us to get our business back online and be successful again. it is that optimism and attitude the government is not there to stick on the necks of the people to help them succeed, not prevent them from doing it. that has been the big impact. deneen: and will regulations continue to be a priority with this administration? dir. mulvaney: we will do some new regulations. sometimes you have to do a new want to fix an old one. we will also be continuing the deregulatory agenda the president still asks about. we talk about all the cabinet secretaries about it. it will be a priority. we can do most of it without congress.

[applause] i will be careful about how much executive authority he wants, but all of the things you obama -- the obama administration did without congress, we can undo without congress. [applause] deneen: so let's switch gears and talk about the budget. you served on both congress and the executive branch. you have seen both sides of the spectrum. many conservatives were disappointed over the 2019 budget proposal from the president because of the significant embrace -- increase in spending. one thing that seems to be the case as democrats and republicans don't have a problem so the -- problem spending money. how do we cut spending? dir. mulvaney: here is a challenge we face. nobody was more disappointed when we offered the budget, we could not figure out how to balance it in 10 years. here are the cards we have been

dealt. when we sat with the democrats to talk about the money we needed for national defense, secretary mattis has spent his first 8, 10 months trying to figure out how much money we needed to fix the department of defense, not just some of the damage done by the previous administration but to deal with north korea. the number for this year's $700 billion. every time we met was, with nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, they would say we are with you on this one. we want to defend the country as well as you would. the president walks out, and we say this will be easy. i say they are not telling you the truth. when we sat down to get into negotiation, they say we need $100 for defense, they say that is fine, we will give you that is -- as long as you give us $100 for nondefense spending, stuff that democrats like. that was negotiation, and that is why we expended so much more money.

he saw the tweet saying we did the deal because we have to defend the nation, but the extortion was high. almost like $120 billion in nondefense spending over the next two years to get the democrats to vote for the national defense budget. it was frustrating to him. we talked about it a good deal. he was not happy, but he considers his first priority to be to defend the nation. but is how we ended up where we were. what bay to -- what is one way to do better on spending? elect more republicans. [applause] dir. mulvaney: did i just say that? not to break the law here today. deneen: or to piggyback on what you just said, do we need a commission, for example, before it comes to a crisis? do we need a commission to pinpoint and highlight the seriousness of the spending we are under in order to get something moving? dir. mulvaney: i have talked to

the speaker of the house and president. commissions are great. that is fine. anything that draws attention to spending and deficits would be fantastic. the difficulty is you cannot swing a dead cat and not hit a blue-ribbon commission from time to time. they cannot work. the real question is, it is up to you. how do you elect people who actually care about spending? there are republicans who look you in the eye and say i care about a balanced budget and deficit spending, then they do something different. find out who they are, but find republicans who care about fiscal restraints. how will we balance the budget? i don't think we will ever balance the budget by only cutting spending, because i do not think there is the will in congress to do that. we will do it the same way we did in the 1990's. we will grow revenue faster than expense. business people know what i am talking about.

your expenses are going faster in revenue, you are in trouble. -- van revenue, you are in -- inn in revenue, your trouble. we need fiscal restraint. it does not mean cuts. if we spend $100 last year in washington, $102 next year, we call that a cut. if we can control expenses and grow the economy, because when the economy gets bigger, you make more money. and you make more money the government makes more money because that is how we get paid. the more money you make, the more money we make. if we can make you wealthier, the government will benefit. our revenue will grow and deficit will strength -- will shrink. deneen: let mask ask you about interest rates. interest rates rising. let me ask your thoughts on the total deficit. dir. mulvaney: every additional

1% interest rate increase -- we thought we would pay to present entries -- 2% interest the next several years, that costs us $1.6 trillion over 10 years. you talk like i am about spending, we always look in 10 years. isry additional 1% in cost $1.6 trillion. what is the good news? everyone percent additional economic growth, so instead of 2% a year for a decade, if we go 3% over the decade, that saves us $3.26 trillion. that is how big the american economy is. and the fact we have been able to grow at 3% the last couple quarters is a big deal. if you have seen me on television you are sick of me saying this because it bears repeating. if you are sitting in here today and are under the age of 30, you have never had a job in a

healthy american economy. that is a job in america -- obama economy. the things you can do -- [applause] dir. mulvaney: the things you can do with 3%, talk to your parents and grandparents. i had a small business in the 1990's when things were good. if you did not like your job in the 1990's you could quit and start your own business and know you had a chance. if you got light off -- laid off, you can find another job that paid better. that is a healthy american economy that brings dynamism and confidence and creativity that does not exist when everyone is worried whether or not we will have a healthy economy. if we can get to 3%, you can see the benefits of not only in the deficit but whether or not people have a chance to defend themselves, to pay for their family, save for their future. it will be a great opportunity to prove to people how great america can be economically. deneen: we will switch gears and

talk tax cuts with our remaining time. are you surprised at the number of companies that have responded to the tax cuts with bonuses and increase in wages? dir. mulvaney: i will tell you a secret. we are. we had no idea. we had no idea it would happen that quickly. we knew the benefits would be there. we just thought it would take a year for it to sort of take in. when the businesses started announcing the next day $1000 bonuses, hourly pay raises, stock buybacks for workers, the benefits for ordinary americans were instantaneous. i wish we had known that because we would have tried to pitch that as we tried to pitch tax reform. the fact it happened quickly surprised us. what it proved to all of us was what we sort of new but hoped for. we were not comfortable saying out loud that there was a tremendous pent-up demand for economic growth in this country.

people have been beaten down by the government for a long time. they want to grow and be healthy. now they have the freedom to do that. deneen: in regards to the $1.5 trillion that was part of the budget, the estimated tax cuts which would increase -- given the amounts expected because of the bonuses and increase in repatriation, money coming back from overseas, how will this impact? dir. mulvaney: i can give you an hour on that. we have run the numbers, and what we saw when we saw the changed tax code -- we did not just reduce taxes. that is relatively easy to do. we changed the structure of the tax system for the first time since the 1980's. it is a powerful tool we have given the american economy. we saw what we expected, revenue start to go down for the first time in four years, then they

pick up. in the last year, we looked out for budget perspective, because of the healthy economy, the government will take in an additional four point -- $450 billion that year alone. we can say, the deficits will go up for some time, but over the course of 10 years and every year after that, the government will take in more money. that is how the system works. you get richer, the government gets more money. that is the only way we get deficits under control, but we have taken really crucial steps. deneen: is there anything the audience needs to know about that perhaps you have not been able to talk about in the media or something we have not addressed? dir. mulvaney: we are not out to get you anymore. go. [applause] go out, do what you do. do your job, do something, take a chance, be american. prove to people capitalism, this

capitalistic system works. we have been the envy of the world for the past. we can do so in the future. take a chance, do what you want to do, be successful and the government will not be in your way if you want to do that. deneen: thank you, sir. thank you, folks. dir. mulvaney: thank you. ♪ [applause] >> this is dick heller very those of you who have heard of the -- this is him. [applause] >> he is a real man. right or dick: a real dude. >> he is a real dude. he is a dude. we areat