Suppose the government put out a questionnaire to businesses asking what regulations they’d like to see rubbed out. And suppose they didn’t worry about what it would mean for pollution to go uncontrolled, safety to be disregarded, fiscal controls that guard against economic collapse to be removed, worker rights to be ignored. Well … no imagination required.
Just days after taking office, President Trump invited American manufacturers to recommend ways the government could cut regulations and make it easier for companies to get their projects approved.
Industry leaders responded with scores of suggestions that paint the clearest picture yet of the dramatic steps that Trump officials are likely to take in overhauling federal policies, especially those designed to advance environmental protection and safeguard worker rights.
As it turns out, there is just one big factor getting in the way of padding profits creating jobs—people. If people didn’t insist on being able to breath clean air, drink clean water, eat safe food, have something approaching a life, and work without being folded, spindled, and mutilated, jobs would be plentiful.
The Environmental Protection Agency has emerged as the primary target in these comments, accounting for nearly half, with the Labor Department in second place as the subject of more than one-fifth, according to a Commerce Department analysis.
The Trump regime is reportedly “inclined to accept” many of these regulatory rollbacks. And who did they bother to ask about why the regulations were there in the first place, or what it would mean to drop them?
Okay. Next question.
The paving industry wants investigations stopped into what it means for people to be exposed to coal tar. The Chamber of Commerce wants time to object to projects cut to a third. Federal contractors want to drop those terrible constraints imposed by Obama—like paid sick leave. They’re all likely to get those changes.
BP wants to cut regulations on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Wait. Let’s try that again. BP wants to cut regulations on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It will probably happen.
The Chamber of Commerce also has a special request.
… to jettison a requirement that employers report their injury and illness records electronically to the Labor Department so they can be posted “on the internet for anyone to see.”
Because nothing protects jobs like being able to cover up embarrassing accidents.
The Trump regime is touting this “How would you like to kick America?” invite as the first attempt to reduce regulation. Which is a long way from true.
Several previous administrations, both Republicans and Democrats, have sought to eliminate regulations that were deemed burdensome. Obama launched a “regulatory lookback” in 2011 that solicited input from the public and saved $13 billion — mostly in paperwork reductions. The Transportation Department, for example, changed a rule requiring truck drivers to file reports on their vehicles every day they hit the road to one mandating reports only when they identify problems or have reason to think there’s an issue with their trucks.
President Clinton also put Al Gore in charge of a major reduction and streamlining of regulations that saved billions for both government and industry.
The difference between what those administrations did and what’s happening under Trump is that those previous reductions were done with a matching review of the original regulatory intent and an eye toward not harming workers or the public. That’s not what’s happening this time around.
Janet McCabe, who helped craft some of the rules now in jeopardy as head of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said her agency had sought comment from across the ideological spectrum. That contrasted with how Trump2’s EPA is seeking public comment, she said.
“The signals that they’re sending through the way they describe their initiative is the audience they’re worried about, to the exclusion of everybody else, is industry,” McCabe said.