If it was working-class voters who swung the election to Trump, he is doing little to help and a lot to hurt them. Trump's primary concern are the rich and big business. For example no ordinary American got a tax cut percentage as big as corporate America. When are Trump's working class supporters going to see they've been had?
While campaigning, “Donald Trump promised regular people,
“I will be your voice,” and attacked the drug industry for “getting away with
murder” in setting high prices for lifesaving medications. But as president, he
has declared war on
regulatory programs protecting the health, safety and economic rights of
consumers. He has done so in disregard of evidence that such protections help
the economy and financial well-being of the working-class voters he claims to
champion. . . .
Though Mr. Trump is brazen in his opposition to consumer protections,
many of his most damaging attacks are occurring in corners of the bureaucracy
that receive minimal news coverage. His administration, for instance, wants to strip the elderly of
their right to challenge nursing home abuses in court by allowing arbitration
clauses in nursing home contracts. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration has announced that it is canceling a proposed rule
intended to reduce the risk of sleep apnea-related accidents among truck
drivers and railway workers.
And the Environmental Protection Agency is busy
weakening, repealing and under-enforcing protections, including for children,
from toxic exposure. Scott Pruitt, the director, went against his agency’s
scientists to jettison an imminent ban on the use of chlorpyrifos, an
insecticide widely used on vegetables and fruits. Long-accumulated evidence
shows that the chemical is poisoning the drinking water of farm workers
and their families.
This assault began with Mr. Trump choosing agency chiefs
who are tested corporate loyalists driven to undermine the lifesaving,
income-protecting institutions whose laws they have sworn to uphold.
At the Food and Drug Administration, Mr. Trump has
installed Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a
former pharmaceutical industry consultant, who supports weakening drug and
medical device safety standards and has shown no real commitment to reducing
sky-high drug prices. At the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, a
billionaire investor in for-profit colleges, has weakened enforcement policy on
that predatory industry, hiring industry insiders and abandoning protections
for students and taxpayers.
Mr. Pruitt, as the attorney general of Oklahoma, filed
suits against the E.P.A. He has hired former lobbyists for the fossil fuel and
chemical industries. Mr. Trump’s aides and Republicans in Congress are pushing
to restrict access to state courts by plaintiffs who seek to hold polluters
accountable.
The administration is even threatening to dismantle the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau and fire its director, Richard Cordray, who was installed
after Wall Street’s 2008 crash. Their sins: They returned over $12 billion to
defrauded consumers and plan to issue regulations dealing with payday debt
traps and compulsory arbitration clauses that deny aggrieved consumers their
day in court. (The Senate is now considering legislation to gut the arbitration
rule.)
Draconian budget cuts, new restrictions on health
insurance, diminished privacy protections and denying climate change while
putting off fuel-efficiency deadlines and auto safety standards will hurt all
Americans, including Mr. Trump’s most die-hard supporters.
Mr. Trump’s deregulation crowd argues that they are
freeing markets to grow. But preventing casualties and protecting consumers
are, in fact, good for the economy. Nicholas Ashford, a professor of technology at
M.I.T., has shown how safety regulation has fostered innovation. Markets grow
in humane and efficient ways when workers make airbags, products to detect
contaminants in food and water, and recycling equipment. Fraud prosecutions
leave consumers with more money, generating sales, jobs and a higher standard
of living.
When courts grant compensation for wrongful injuries,
they not only help victims pay their bills but also lessen the burden on
public insurance programs like Medicare. Fuel-efficiency standards save
consumers money, improve air quality and reduce dependence on foreign oil. The
Department of Energy itself says that over
five years, a 30-m.p.g. vehicle will save $3,125 if driven 15,000 miles
annually. . . .
Labor, consumer and environmental groups are mobilizing
to fight efforts to sap health and safety protections. Citizens are
rediscovering the benefits of focusing on members of Congress at town halls and
other gatherings.
Smashing safety and consumer safeguards will lead to
deaths, injuries and diseases that provoke intense news coverage. Demands to hold the profit-obsessed Trump
team accountable for conflicts of interest will intensify. And civil
servants, blocked from enforcing laws, will respect established procedures or
become whistle-blowers, with legal protections.”
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and the
author of “Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think.”
See post below for another example.
See post below for another example.
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