The FEMA chief was asleep at the switch. The MSHA boss was actively working to make his agency less effective. So is it any wonder that the Bush apointees in charge of the Consumer Product Safety Commission have been more worried about protecting the bottom line of the manufacturers, than about saving the lives of consumers?
After a sharp increase in deaths among children riding ATVs, doctors called for restrictions on selling adult-sized devices to kids under sixteen. What did the agency charged with protecting consumers do about warning consumers?
But when it came time to consider such a step, a staff member whose name did not appear on the meeting agenda unexpectedly weighed in.
"My own view is the situation is not necessarily deteriorating," said John Gibson Mullan, the agency's director of compliance and a former lawyer for the A.T.V. industry, according to a recording.
When imported products ranging from toys to toothpaste were found to contain toxic ingredients, what did the CPSC have to say? Not much, really. But then, there aren't many people left to say anything.
At a time when imports from China and other Asian countries surged, creating an ever greater oversight challenge, the Bush-appointed commissioners voiced few objections as the already tiny agency — now just 420 workers — was pared almost to the bone.
None of this should be a surprise, and shouldn't have been from the start. As a (failed) congressional candidate, George W. Bush named two agencies he wanted to eliminate -- the EPA and OSHA. As a president, he's done his best to follow through on those ideas.
Under the Bush administration, which promised to ease what it viewed as costly rules that placed unnecessary burdens on businesses, industry-friendly officials have been installed at agencies that oversee the nation’s workplaces, food suppliers, environment and consumer goods.
It's easy to point at "trickle down economics" as the silliest idea of conservatism, but the thought that, unregulated, manufacturers would still be driven to provide safe, effective products through the guidance of that all powerful "invsible hand" is even more laughable. With massive pressure for profits on one side, and not regulation on the other, the manufacturers could rationalize making toys out of spent uranium shells painted with ebola.
The head of the poison prevention unit... resigned when efforts to require inexpensive child-resistant caps on hair care products that had burned toddlers were delayed so industry costs could be weighed against the potential benefit to children.
"Buyer beware — that is all I have to say," Suzanne Barone, the poison prevention expert, who left in 2005, said.