I Can't Believe So Many Republicans Are Backing an Administration* Full of Republicans

Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla - Getty Images
Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla - Getty Images

From Esquire

Tuesday’s episode of Tales of Deregulation comes to us in two parts. The first features the Environmental Protection Agency, which once was a hero on this series, but which, in a devilish plot twist three years ago, became one of its primary villains. The latest, via The New York Times, is a naked attempt to monkey-wrench public-health regulations by limiting the scientific evidence that can be used in their development.

A new draft of the Environmental Protection Agency proposal, titled Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, would require that scientists disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the agency could consider an academic study’s conclusions. E.P.A. officials called the plan a step toward transparency and said the disclosure of raw data would allow conclusions to be verified independently...

The measure would make it more difficult to enact new clean air and water rules because many studies detailing the links between pollution and disease rely on personal health information gathered under confidentiality agreements. And, unlike a version of the proposal that surfaced in early 2018, this one could apply retroactively to public health regulations already in place.

This is remarkably sleazy. They’re going to use confidential medical records to block new public health regulations...and they might not be able to get those records at all. There are dozens of good reasons for these regulations and just as many good reasons to keep medical records confidential. Using the latter as a sledgehammer on the former is a masterpiece of bureaucratic cynicism aimed at undercutting the government’s ability to improve lives in either area. Yeah, I can’t believe that so many Republicans still line up behind this administration*.

Photo credit: Boston Globe - Getty Images
Photo credit: Boston Globe - Getty Images

Meanwhile, let’s drop in on the irredeemable pack o’bastids in the payday-lending business. As Dave Dayen reports over at The American Prospect, in Arizona, the irredeemable pack o’bastids has lined up in favor of an amendment to that state’s constitution that would limit any future rise in the state’s minimum wage, and also would put the kibosh on already scheduled raises. Their motive is quite simple.

One of the payday lending industry’s leading trade associations has bankrolled the measure, making plain the connection between a lack of income and the spread of predatory financial services. “It’s pretty incredible,” says Rodd McLeod, who works with Arizonans for Fair Lending, which is fighting the proposed ballot measure. “We need people to be poor in order to continue to make money.”

And that’s pretty much it.

Who is leading the Economic Freedom Act? The short-term lending industry. The front group has the anodyne name “Arizonans for Financial Freedom,” but as The Arizona Republic explains, the lead sponsor is a group called the National Credit Alliance, which is affiliated with the Financial Services Centers of America, a key trade group for payday lenders and check-cashing stores.

In other words, you have an industry that relies on a steady stream of poor people intervening in government policy to ensure a consistent stream of more poor people who require its services. “The answer to American families struggling paycheck to paycheck is a living wage, not predatory loans,” says Lauren Saunders, associate director at the National Consumer Law Center.

Bottom line: the Trump Administration is full of Republicans.

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