Related: How will Trump’s climate change executive orders impact Ohio?
Pence told supporters and employees at Dynalab Inc. in Reynoldsburg: “You know complying with federal mandates actually costs businesses like this one here over $13,000 a year for every single employee. All told, red tape from Washington, D.C. actually costs the economy over $2 trillion a year.”
Pence assured the crowd that Trump is “reining in un-elected bureaucrats so they can no longer cripple Ohio’s economy from the comfort of their taxpayer-funded metal desks in Washington, D.C.”
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper criticized the Trump-Pence administration for proposing cutting funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which provides funding for environmental clean up projects, and the Appalachian Regional Commission, which pays for infrastructure and job training programs in rural areas. “It’s like they’re attacking Ohio from every direction,” Pepper said.
Related: Trump plans to change overtime rule: How will it impact you?
In his 25-minutes of remarks, Pence ticked through Trump’s agenda items – repeal and replace Obamacare, defeat terrorists, cut taxes, build infrastructure, rebuild the military, curb illegal immigration and restore coal miner jobs. “The war on coal is over,” he said.
Dynalab owner Gary James is a big Trump supporter but not all his 300 employees share his views. Employee Vincent Griffith said “It is ridiculous to say that coal is going to come back for coal miners.” He called the vice president’s remarks “the toughest speech I’ve ever had to listen to.”
Griffith and Narayan Rai, another worker in the non-union shop, said they were paid to attend.
Griffith, who has worked for Dynalab for two years, said the health care benefits are sparse. “I could go get a job at Bob Evans frying sausages and make more money than I do here.”
In May 2016 then Vice President Joe Biden visited Columbus to announce new regulations to require overtime wages for roughly four million salaried white-collar workers. But in February, the Trump administration moved to block those regulations.
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