White House Effort to Reduce Government Regulations Wildly Successful

The Trump administration’s war on Obama-era regulations is set to nearly double this year’s goal — and potentially go much further — after getting off to a slow start, according to budget experts.

With plans to cut $18 billion worth of regulations in fiscal year 2019, which ends in September, the administration is poised to boost that to $33 billion, according to a mid-year review by the budget watchdog American Action Forum.

What’s more, the administration is moving toward a regulatory cut that the review said would cut an additional $561 billion, 31 times this year’s goal.

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Link to article.

Most of these regulations are unnecessary, but they grow like kudzu. For example, it used to be up to the individual investigators to determine when chemicals in their labs had expired and should no longer be used. Nobody ever had a problem with this. But now federal regulations 1) require that expiration dates be set for all chemicals, even those that never actually degrade with time, like Sodium chloride and water, 2) that inspections be made of labs on a regular basis to be sure that expired chemicals are not being used, 3) that chemicals are stored properly, 4) that certain chemical classes be stored in special containers, 5) that some chemicals can no longer be used at all so that more expensive alternatives must be found, and on and on. All of this takes up time and is very expensive. Pretty much all we did for 3 weeks out of one year was to get the chemical stores right by the regulations. They only problems we had were the result of the regulations.

You don't wonder why these regulations exist when you meet a team of investigators sent from DC to check our compliance whose jobs didn't exist until the regulations were enacted. You don't wonder why the deep state is fit to be tied over Trump's effort to get rid of these regulations.

LowDown said:

Link to article.

Most of these regulations are unnecessary, but they grow like kudzu. For example, it used to be up to the individual investigators to determine when chemicals in their labs had expired and should no longer be used. Nobody ever had a problem with this. But now federal regulations 1) require that expiration dates be set for all chemicals, even those that never actually degrade with time, like Sodium chloride and water, 2) that inspections be made of labs on a regular basis to be sure that expired chemicals are not being used, 3) that chemicals are stored properly, 4) that certain chemical classes be stored in special containers, 5) that some chemicals can no longer be used at all so that more expensive alternatives must be found, and on and on. All of this takes up time and is very expensive. Pretty much all we did for 3 weeks out of one year was to get the chemical stores right by the regulations. They only problems we had were the result of the regulations.

You don't wonder why these regulations exist when you meet a team of investigators sent from DC to check our compliance whose jobs didn't exist until the regulations were enacted. You don't wonder why the deep state is fit to be tied over Trump's effort to get rid of these regulations.

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The ultimate pay-to-play president. Preaching MAGA but only further promoting the most pro-Corporate policy in history. Bridgewater Associates just released a report on the economy over the last two decades. What they found was that Corporate profits soared over the past couple decades, and that this was achieved by a smaller labor share of the profits and the collapse of union membership, a consequence they report of this pro-Corporate environment. Not immigration, not automation primarily, but the inequality and crisis we face is one of Capitalism. Ideologues like yourself Will look like extremists in the future, once the damage to the planet and the exacerbation of the wealth inequality in this country is wrought by the Trump-GOP Policy.

LowDown said:

Link to article.

Most of these regulations are unnecessary, but they grow like kudzu. For example, it used to be up to the individual investigators to determine when chemicals in their labs had expired and should no longer be used. Nobody ever had a problem with this. But now federal regulations 1) require that expiration dates be set for all chemicals, even those that never actually degrade with time, like Sodium chloride and water, 2) that inspections be made of labs on a regular basis to be sure that expired chemicals are not being used, 3) that chemicals are stored properly, 4) that certain chemical classes be stored in special containers, 5) that some chemicals can no longer be used at all so that more expensive alternatives must be found, and on and on. All of this takes up time and is very expensive. Pretty much all we did for 3 weeks out of one year was to get the chemical stores right by the regulations. They only problems we had were the result of the regulations.

You don't wonder why these regulations exist when you meet a team of investigators sent from DC to check our compliance whose jobs didn't exist until the regulations were enacted. You don't wonder why the deep state is fit to be tied over Trump's effort to get rid of these regulations.

Click to expand...

LowDown said:

Link to article.

Most of these regulations are unnecessary, but they grow like kudzu. For example, it used to be up to the individual investigators to determine when chemicals in their labs had expired and should no longer be used. Nobody ever had a problem with this. ... The only problems we had were the result of the regulations.

You don't wonder why these regulations exist when you meet a team of investigators sent from DC to check our compliance whose jobs didn't exist until the regulations were enacted.

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This is total nonsense.

Whenever I hear someone suggest we do away with regulations, I ask myself "Why does the regulation exist in the first place?"

Regulations do not rise out of a vacuum. There was a problem that needed to be addressed, and a given regulation or myriad of regulations are attempts to address the problem. You can argue whether or not the regulations effectively address the problem or if they create more problems than they solve, but your assertion that these regulations came about for the specific purpose of creating government inspector jobs is ludacris on its face.

History is replete with examples of industrial regulations that came into being after it was repeatedly demonstrated that private industry could not be trusted to do the right thing on their own. Lacking regulations, when a tragedy is traced back to a specific industry practice, corporations want nothing more than to say "We violated no regulations or laws." Quite often, regulations serve primarily to hold companies accountable for practices and protocols that everyone in the industry agree ought to be followed.

This is true of every industry in America, from chemical manufacturing to dental practice, automotive and finance and banking. Companies are constantly looking for ways to take shortcuts, lower overhead, and get an economic advantage. When things go badly quite often it is consumers to pay the price. This is where regulations come from.

let's have a return to river fires at the fishin' hole.

maga

LowDown said:

Link to article.

Most of these regulations are unnecessary, but they grow like kudzu. For example, it used to be up to the individual investigators to determine when chemicals in their labs had expired and should no longer be used. Nobody ever had a problem with this. But now federal regulations 1) require that expiration dates be set for all chemicals, even those that never actually degrade with time, like Sodium chloride and water, 2) that inspections be made of labs on a regular basis to be sure that expired chemicals are not being used, 3) that chemicals are stored properly, 4) that certain chemical classes be stored in special containers, 5) that some chemicals can no longer be used at all so that more expensive alternatives must be found, and on and on. All of this takes up time and is very expensive. Pretty much all we did for 3 weeks out of one year was to get the chemical stores right by the regulations. They only problems we had were the result of the regulations.

You don't wonder why these regulations exist when you meet a team of investigators sent from DC to check our compliance whose jobs didn't exist until the regulations were enacted. You don't wonder why the deep state is fit to be tied over Trump's effort to get rid of these regulations.

Click to expand...

Those jobs no longer exist with tRump budget cuts - OSHA's total federal inspection force, which fell below 1,000 by early October, 2017.

Declining Federal Oversight of Workplace Safety Could Have Fatal Consequences

A drop in federal safety inspectors has coincided with an increase in deaths in workplaces monitored by OSHA.

The data paint a picture of two years of malign neglect at OSHA, the chief federal authority for preventing workers from getting maimed, poisoned, abused or killed at work. (The data, which track performance under occupational health and safety rules, does not cover all workplaces—it excludes police, firefighters, army, work-related traffic deaths, deaths in mines, and deaths in the 29 states with state-run OSHA plans.) In the workplaces under the federal OSHA jurisdiction, NELP found an uptick in worker deaths on the job between fiscal years 2017 and 2018, from 837 to 929. When researchers assessed overall enforcement activity in terms of “enforcement units,” which factor in complexity and frequency of inspections, they also discovered a “steady decline” in the intensity of enforcement.

From fiscal 2016 to 2017, federal OSHA enforcement units fell from 42,900 to 41,829. The most recent data for 2018 show that enforcement activity continued to decline, dropping further to 41,478 enforcement units. (. . .) OSHA’s inspection of dangerous chemicals like pesticides fell by two-thirds.

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Please note this decline is not restricted to tRump's time in office, it was happening during the Obama years also. In fact, the decline began back in the Reagan years.

Doesn't mean tRump is doing much to protect Americans from dangerous chemicals in our water and air.

Deep EPA cuts put public health at risk

For the third year in a row, the Trump administration proposed deep cuts to EPA. These reductions would allow more lead, toxic chemicals, and contaminated water -- jeopardizing the health and safety of all Americans.

The result will be more asthma attacks and more toxic pollution in our communities.

The first time, Congress saw the public backlash and rejected the EPA cuts. But now the fight starts all over again for the next budget.
(. . .)
EPA accounts for just 0.2 percent, or $8 billion, of a $4 trillion federal budget. The agency's budget already has been repeatedly cut by Congress in recent years and is already, in real dollars, close to its lowest level in forty years.

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Will lawsuits cost taxpayers more than tRump's budget cuts?

Judge says US government can be sued for Flint water crisis

(Federal Judge Linda) Parker says EPA employees knew lead was leaching from old pipes because Flint's water wasn't being properly treated. She says the EPA also knew that Michigan regulators were misleading residents about the quality of the water.

The judge says the "lies went on for months."

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