Puzder was brought down by the leftists of both parties

“After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor,” read Puzder’s statement.

Puzder was a fantastic pick for labor department. As the chief of CKE Restaurants, he oversaw a rapid expansion in their business and created thousands of jobs in the process. During his tenure as CEO of the fast food organization, he grew the value of the company from a debt of $700 million to $1.3 billion in yearly revenue.

Puzder earned plaudits for his stance on private sector job creation. In a ringing endorsement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., compared his nomination to a “slap in the face,” boosting Puzder’s conservative credentials.

He is a devotee to free market economics, and understands the reforms needed to get Americans working, and our economy competitive. In fact, he wrote an entire book on it, titled Job Creation: How it Really Words and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It.

Puzder’s nomination was killed in part by misinformation campaigns. That is not in and of itself surprising, since nearly all of President Trump’s nominees have experienced the kind of uniform opposition that we’ve come to expect from the Left.

What is surprising is the opposition from the conservatives over issues like “prevailing wages” and concern from labor groups. That is to say, the biggest tragedy of Puzder’s failure is the betrayal of conservative principles by Senate Republicans and conservative intellectuals — folks who otherwise respect free markets and an unobtrusive national government. Regrettably, their hesitance to support the fast food mogul stems in part to a mistaken assumption that immigrants have a harmful effect on the economy. They do not.

By using the same economic reasoning as the Left, downplaying the dynamic effects of migrants and the history of immigration in the United States, it was easy for the leftists of both parties to undo the nomination of a successful job creator.

This was a needless defeat snatched from the jaws of victory for Republicans.

The secretary of labor holds a wide array of powers over the economy and immigration policy. They are responsible for overseeing work visas, which decide who can come into our country to work. These can be everything from farm workers to high-skilled individuals crucial in the development of new technologies.

For instance, the founders of Google, Reddit, Yahoo, Paypal, Amazon and Apple were all immigrants or children of immigrants. Having their talent here in the U.S. ensured that our economy remained cutting-edge and dynamic. Likewise, attracting and retaining top-tier talent from around the world is crucial to rising standards of living.

The labor secretary also has sway over the federal minimum wage, which can have massive impacts on employment. In 2014, the Congressional Budget Office studied the effects of raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. They found that approximately 500,000 American workers would lose their jobs as a result. Teenagers working their first jobs would likely bear most of the hit.

In case the picture painted above was too grim, good news came on Thursday, when Trump announced Puzder’s replacement: Alexander Acosta.

Acosta, a previous assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division under President George W. Bush, appears to be cut from the same cloth as Puzder. During a panel on immigration and the workforce in 2012, Acosta expressed the “need to find real solutions that address both the issues of illegal immigration and a pathway to legal immigration,” when commenting on legislative efforts to overhaul the immigration system.

In the end, though Puzder was a great choice for labor secretary, leftists of both parties brought him down. That said, Acosta may be just as good as Puzder.

Jorge Marin (@JorgeSpaceMarin) is a policy specialist at Americans for Tax Reform.

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