The regulations that were rolled back were not created in a vacuum. The reason we have regulations is because a business or an individual did something that brought harm to someone else, or something was discovered that could bring harm to people. Those who call them “job killers” are the reason the rules were created in the first place.
Case in point: one of the regulations Trump repealed earlier this year restricted the dumping of coal waste in streams and rivers. Now, it’s not exactly going out on a limb to say this is a bad thing.
Coal sludge is filled with toxins. Each year coal preparation creates waste water containing an estimated 13 tons of mercury, 3236 tons of arsenic, 189 tons of beryllium, 251 tons of cadmium, and 2754 tons of nickel, and 1098 tons of selenium
The argument that not allowing coal waste to be dumped in rivers and streams kills jobs is bunk. Coal mining jobs are going away, and they are never coming back. It costs the mine owners more money to contain coal waste—that is why this regulation was repealed.
Another regulation repealed was the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. This rule:
[B]arred companies from receiving federal contracts if they had a history of violating wage, labor or workplace safety laws. That regulation, derided by critics as the "blacklisting" rule, was already held up in court.
Seems fair, doesn’t it? You violate federal law, you should not get a federal contract. The reason given for repealing this rule?
"The rule simply made it too easy for trial lawyers to go after American companies and American workers who contract with the federal government," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.
It’s almost impossible to say what trial lawyers have to do with this regulation. The real reason this was repealed? It was likely costing a federal law-violating business owner with deep pockets a lot of money, as he or she could not get federal contracts.
Another rule that was repealed is one that would have prevented mentally ill people from purchasing firearms.
The rule required the Social Security Administration to submit records of mentally disabled people to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the FBI database used to determine whether someone can buy a firearm under the 1993 Brady Bill.
There were some privacy issues with this rule, but those could have been alleviated. This was a rule that was repealed solely because the Republican Party is beholden to the NRA.
Regulations and laws are not job killers. That is just an excuse to attack government for preventing a business owner from causing harm to their employees or the environment—or in the case of the last rule mentioned above, for saving someone from themselves. These regulations would not need to exist if all business owners treated their employees fairly, provided a safe work environment, and did not fill the environment with toxic chemicals.
Trump’s repeal of these Obama-era rules is nothing more than a handout to his Mar-a-Lago golf buddies.