Regulation
Science deniers Trump has already put in power:
"...in the 1980's, we started pulling the threads out of the regulatory fabric, and we found ourselves back in the boom-and-bust cycle." Elizabeth Warren: A Fighting Chance.
We should be searching diligently for workable regulations, not cursing government for getting in the way. Bill McKibben in his book Falter, Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?.
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” - FDR
The Roots of Regulation Rage (9/18/2019)
Carl Icahn's Failed Raid on Washington (8/28/2017)
Dewey, Cheatem & Howe (9/25/2015)
Industry influence on EPA Fracking Study (3/3/2015)
Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA (5/11/2013)
To govern is to regulate, so that things don´t go out of control.
The Republican zeal for deregulation assured that the market would
become a wrecking ball, environmental
protections became ineffective, loose labor regulation threatened
worker safety. The lesson is clear: when mindless deregulation
occurs, consumers, workers, the public commons, and economic stability are at
risk. Underlying the issue are the rights of property versus the rights of the public.
Republicans mostly favor property rights. The Supreme Court, being corporatists,
usually sides with them.
Still, they have not learned that markets are NOT self regulating, and that it is the job of government to see that fraud and wild speculation are illegal, especially since taxpayers ultimately take the loss. The wealthy have gamed the system so that US wealth inequality is extreme.
Republicans have been keen to dismantle the automatic economic stabilizers put in place in the 1930s. They revoked the Glass-Steagle Law that protected taxpayers from speculators, and now taxpayers again are on the hook. Banks have consolidated still further, so expect another crisis ...only worse. The Dodd-Frank act was designed to address the "too big to fail" problem that will ultimately be yet another burden for taxpayers, but Republicans want to roll that back also as a favor to their donor oligarchs.
Business consolidation, formerly discouraged by ant-trust law, also consolidates wealth for obscenely paid CEOs. The graduated income tax might have been a counterbalance, but it has been all but eliminated. Deadbeat Republicans refuse to pay the bills for the war adventures and tax cuts that they have put on the tab. Now many of them, the Tea Party fringe at least, are prepared to default on the debt.
Republican hypocrisy is on full display now that they have passed the Trump tax cut for the wealthy, while adding $1.5 trillion to the debt.
Having rolled back the New Deal, Republicans have not been satisfied though. Across the country they screamed for fiscal austerity. That has meant an inadequate stimulus program at the federal level, job cuts at every level of government, harsh new laws restricting unions from bargaining, unwillingness to participate in infrastructure improvement for highways and railroads. A lot of States like New Jersey balanced their budgets and even given tax cuts by not paying into pension funds, now they want to cut pensions.
* they fought regulation, so loosened pollution rule, predatory practices and corruption have become routine.
Links
Reckless
Corporations Can't Be Trusted to Regulate Themselves.