Trumpês election and auto dealers: What lies ahead?
What will Donald Trumpês surprise election to the presidency mean for auto dealers? In his zeal to cut down on federal regulations, will President Trump dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)? Will the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) be repealed? Will Detroit automakers stop making cars in Mexico?
As with any presidential candidate who wins office, there will likely be a wide gap between his campaign promises and his policies while in office. Campaigning and governing call for different rhetoric and actions. Some of Trumpês promises, such as building a wall along the full border with Mexico, would be impossible to carry out, between the $25 billion price tag and the diplomatic morasse that would ensue.
But promises he made repeatedly and strongly, such as repealing Obamacare, are clearly priorities. With the health care law, it helps that the House, which remains Rebuplican, already voted to roll it back dozens of times. Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have said that repealing Obamacare is a high priority. The details are not so clear. It would be hard to tell 20 million people who have health care through the health care exchanges that they are no longer insured. For more information on the future of Obamacare, see the article below, Trump likely to attack health care law quickly.
Another measure Trump proposed during the campaign was putting a tariff on cars brought here from Mexico. That would cover a lot of domestic cars made by the Detroit Three. One estimate in the Detroit News put the potential extra cost at $5,000 for a $15,000 car.
A law curtailing the regulatory power of the CFPB, which NADA and dealers around the country lobbied for, likely has a better chance of passage now, according to an article in Automotive News. HR 1737, the Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act, passed the House easily a year ago, and a companion bill, S 2663, was referred to committee in the Senate.
The bill would have had a harder time in the Senate, where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) helped create the CFPB. Plus, Obama supports the agency and could well have vetoed the bill if it had reached his desk. The bill would likely do better under President-elect Trump, who is eager to curb regulatory power.
Because Trump has never held elective office, a great deal will depend on who he hires for his Cabinet. Some names have already been bandied about: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker and onetime presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
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