Congressional leaders and the Biden administration are currently embroiled in intensive negotiations over major spending legislation they hope to enact this fall. Central to these efforts is the so-called Build Back Better plan, advertised as a whopping $3.5 trillion spending package but likely costing even more: The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the true total to be over $5 trillion.

It’s now been more than four years since the Trump administration launched an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 into China’s policies on intellectual property, technology, and innovation. The investigation and its findings led to the imposition of tariffs on U.S. imports from China covering some 10,000 product categories worth $500 billion.

It is now well known that the process of regulatory accumulation—the buildup of administrative rules over time—can stunt economic growth and lower living standards below what would be otherwise. A coauthor and I recently conducted a review of peer-reviewed studies that rely on measures of regulation constructed by the World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and we found an apparent consensus that regulations that affect entry of new firms into an industry and regulations with anticompetitive product and labor market effects are generally harmful to productivity and growth.

There’s a story that’s often told about America. It makes some people cry, some people laugh and some people barf. It usually involves an immigrant, and it always involves a dream. The dream is the American dream: the idea that if any American works hard enough, he can go as far as his talents will take him.