White House budget director Mick Mulvaney appeared to impress President Donald Trump with an impassioned speech on America's "byzantine" regulatory system during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday.
"Right now, because of the byzantine nature of the way that we regulate in this country ... if you make a cheese pizza, it's governed by the Food and Drug Administration. If you put a pepperoni on it, that's governed by the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture]," said Mulvaney, who also serves as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Mulvaney continued to highlight the complicated regulatory system, and had plenty of examples prepared to make his point.
If you have a chicken, it's governed by the USDA. If that chicken lays an egg, it's governed by the FDA. But if you break the egg and make it into an omelette, that is now covered again by the USDA. If you have an open-faced roast beef sandwich, that's one or the other, but you put the bread on top of it, it's the other one. A hot dog: the hot dog meat is governed by one; you put it in a bun it's governed by the other. One of my favorites, if you have a saltwater fish, you have a salmon and it's in the ocean, it's governed by the Department of Commerce. Once it swims up-river, it's governed by the Department of Interior. And to get there, it has to go up a fish ladder governed by the U.S Army Corps. of Engineers.
"This is stupid," Mulvaney added. "This is just—this makes no sense."
"By the way, that was incredibly said," Trump interjected. "I think you should put that on television, not what I said."
Members of Trump's Cabinet seated around the room laughed in response.