Kevin Hassett was formerly chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Trump. He's vice president and managing director of the Lindsey Group, distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a CNN Economics Commentator. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

Before President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, the US economy was inching along with 1.5% growth. Many economists were so convinced the stagnation was here to stay that they called it the "new normal." After the president took office and began pursuing his agenda's three pillars of deregulation, tax cuts and trade reform, the "new normal" crowd said it couldn't work.

Many of the same analysts now say we are headed for recession. There is, if nothing else, logical consistency in their position since they didn't believe Trump's economic plan would work in the first place.

To evaluate the odds of recession, however, it is essential to review the policy record's effects, which we should expect to continue. It's not surprising that policy pessimists are worried about a recession given their views of the impact of the president's policies. But their pessimism is misplaced given the evidence.

Indeed, for the most part, things are working exactly as planned.

Start with deregulation. President Trump revolutionized regulatory practice when he came into office, giving agencies a regulatory budget. If they wanted to increase regulatory costs with a new regulation, they had to find something else to cut . And the successes have been impressive. For example, the 2017 Drug Competition Action Plan and subsequent reforms have led the Food and Drug Administration to approve dramatically more generic drugs , which has increased competition and helped push prices for prescription drugs 1.2% lower during the 12 months through February 2019.