Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus says President Donald Trump’s “initiatives to reduce government red tape and his strong desire for comprehensive tax reform” are responsible for America’s economic resurgence and will create an economy like the one that existed when he started Home Depot.
Writing at the Independent Journal Review, Marcus says the “free market—or capitalist—policies” President Trump is promoting “doesn’t just create an environment where individuals have the opportunity to prosper, but makes charitable-giving possible in the first place.”
Marcus also wrote:
Founding The Home Depot has given me the means to give back more than I could have possibly imagined. In fact, over the last 15 years, I have donated $1 billion dollars to charity. I have given to causes that help increase awareness and further treatments for Autism, donated to help heal the mental wounds of our returning heroes from overseas, and have even opened an aquarium in Atlanta so that everyone in Georgia can experience the wonders of the ocean.
“All of this would have been impossible without the opportunity that free enterprise gave me to start The Home Depot—which is why I’ve become a stark defender of free markets and giving businesses the ability to expand without government intrusion,” Marcus explains.
Marcus is also founder of the Georgia based nonprofit Job Creators Network, one of the nation’s largest pro-jobs grassroots organizations. The 88-year-old billionaire businessman says Obama-era economic policies would have made it impossible for him to found Home Depot. Marcus wrote.:
Regulations from the previous administration would have made it impossible to start The Home Depot today. The payment structure responsible for The Home Depot—which included company shares that created 20,000 millionaires overnight when we went public—would have been illegal under the Obama Labor Department’s overtime rule. It would have barred our hardworking employees in the early days from working long hours to get the company off the ground.
But Trump’s economic agenda has Marcus “enthusiastic,” he says, because the president “understands that if the next generation of young people are subjected to the harsh regulations and taxes of the past decade, the next generation of dreamers and entrepreneurs won’t have a chance to build, innovate, and make the world a better place.”
“So call it whatever you want—capitalism, free enterprise, free market—it doesn’t matter,” Marcus continues. “As long as free market ideals prevail in U.S. public policy, the next generation of entrepreneurs will be able to foster job creation, create innovative products, and boast a strong commitment to giving back.”
“Defending free enterprise is not just a logical responsibility, but a moral obligation. Let’s hope President Trump continues the charge and accomplishes meaningful tax reform,” he concluded.
Marcus’s Job Creator’s Network recently announced plans to embark on a nationwide tour aimed at putting pressure on Congress to send a small business-spurring tax bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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