We know what Andy Puzder, fast-food executive and Trump’s Department of Labor pick, certainly likes.
“I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American,” Puzder, CEO of the parent company that runs Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, said in 2015 of an eye-opening advertising campaign he green-lighted.
What he doesn’t like? Regulation, which could spell doom for a major initiative of the Department he’s looking to head—namely the fiduciary rule.
“The choice of Andy Puzder, a fast-food-chain executive with strong antiregulation views, for labor secretary has fueled expectations among financial-industry experts that the Labor Department’s new retirement-savings rule faces delays or even a rollback,” The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
However, the paper tempers expectations a bit, noting “Trump’s stance is unknown. And like Mr. Trump, Mr. Puzder—now chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s—hasn’t publicly discussed his views on the so-called fiduciary rule, or on retirement savings in general.”
Puzder has no shortage of supporters in Congress were he to go that route, with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the latest politician to come out in favor or repeal (or at least delay).
Johnson recently asked three top regulators in the outgoing Obama administration to cease implementing the fiduciary rule, which he called especially burdensome.
The fiduciary rule, he argued, would “pile significant costs onto American businesses and families and could have severe unintended consequences. These rules are likely to be undone by the incoming administration and the 115th Congress.”
“On November 8, the American people voiced their disapproval of a federal government run by regulation and executive fiat,” Johnson wrote. “The incoming administration and the 115th Congress will likely re-examine and unwind burdensome regulations imposed by the Obama administration.”
Johnson is the third high-profile Republican to officially call for the rule’s discontinuation. House members Rep. Jeb Hensarling joined Rep. Ann Wagner, R., Mo. Called for the same earlier in November.
It’s all in line with a then candidate Trump’s campaign promise to roll back regulations he felt were unnecessarily complicated and stifling of business growth.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
