‘Less regulations’ threaten quality of life
By PAT MURPHY
George W. uttered two words the other day during an
elongated Q&A with reporters in Texas that may reveal the most
far-reaching strategy of his presidency.
After unveiling his Treasury secretary-designate, George
W. was asked about dealing with a possible economic slowdown, to which he
said he has a "plan" -- such as "less regulations" to
rescue the economy from a nose dive.
The notion of "less regulations" may warm the
hearts of laissez faire purists who believe everything goes. But it should
send shivers through Americans who have a more thoughtful vision of their
country.
The phrase "less regulations" is a recycled
version of "jobs, not the environment" that industry used
unsuccessfully as a propaganda chant to fight environmental regulations
and workplace safety and health rules.
Could it be the president-elect is conditioning Americans
for a return to the days of "less regulations" when industry ran
roughshod over the environment?
In those days, industry belched acrid smoke into the air
and pumped toxic waste into the waterways.
Auto makers resisted emission controls on cars.
Lumbermen whacked down the nation’s forests as fast as
saws could chew through trunks.
"Free enterprise" to scoundrels in commerce
meant freedom to swindle and defraud without fear.
Shameless hunters drove some species to the edge of
extinction.
Not even modest controls existed on guns and those
trafficking in firearms.
The workplace in many industries was a wretched hell of
unsafe conditions that risked life and limb of workers.
And so it went.
But regulations were slowly enacted and new agencies
created to rein in abuses inflicted on consumers and environment, with the
regulated kicking and screaming that restrictions would bankrupt them and
ruin America.
Sure. The country rarely has been as prosperous.
Detroit auto makers have regained dominance from Japan,
hunters still hunt, industry manufactures premium products without
poisoning water and the air, the air and waterways are cleaner and
Americans are living longer.
The American ideal of making the workplace safe and
healthy, protecting the environment and land banking cherished wilderness,
preserving wildlife, shoring up the civil rights of minorities has become
a standard to which the world aspires.
Perhaps some of the aging retreads from another era who’re
scripting George W.’s agenda are urging a return to the good ol’ days
of "less regulations."
If oil and some of its allies anticipate "less
regulations" out of the Bush White House, it won’t be coincidence:
George W. worked in oil, Vice President-elect Cheney was in oil, Bush’s
Commerce secretary-elect still is connected to Big Oil, and his Secretary
of State-elect, Gen. Colin Powell, engineered the Desert Storm liberation
of Kuwaiti’s oil fields.
"Less regulations" and indifferent enforcement
have dire results: consider the city of Houston in George Bush’s Texas:
the city has the distinction of being listed as having the nation’s
foulest air pollution.
After years of giant leaps of progress, are we on the
brink of taking giant steps backward?
