Bush Appointees Voiced Few Objections As Product Safety Agency Was Gutted

New York Times:

In March 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission called together the nation's top safety experts to confront an alarming statistic: 44,000 children riding all terrain vehicles were injured the previous year, nearly 150 of them fatally.

National associations of pediatricians, consumer advocates and emergency room doctors were urging the commission to ban sales of adult-size A.T.V.'s for use by children under 16 because the machines were too big and fast for young drivers to control. But when it came time to consider such a step, a staff member whose name did not appear on the meeting agenda unexpectedly weighed in.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[helonias]

11:06 AM on 09/02/2007

Wasn't that the job requirement?

[StopThePlanet]

01:04 PM on 09/02/2007

Exactly. One complaint and you go the way of the now infamous sacked US attorneys.

[cabgx2]

10:59 AM on 09/02/2007

This makes me feel so warm and fuzzy.

[getoffmedz]

09:58 AM on 09/02/2007

The Bush/Cheney administration credo - let our children break their necks, let them eat lead (paint), it's not our problem. We're busy looting YOUR Treasury.

[kay]

09:16 AM on 09/02/2007

The headline is misleading.

It should read "Bush Appointees Deliberately Gutted Agency".

Who are we kidding? They appointed a former industry lawyer as the watchdog. Ken Starr's former law firm is the gift that keeps on giving, for Americans.

Where would this country be without the brave soldiers of the Federalist Society cleverly subverting the intended function of regulatory agencies?

Weenies.

It's politically toxic to just dismantle the regulatory agencies, so they install some Right wing lawyer to insure the regulatory agency doesn't work, at all.

Americans only find out when they get the emergency warning on kids toys loaded with lead.

Nice people, on the Right. Real moral exemplars. Underhanded, slippery bastards.

[DemandTruth]

08:43 AM on 09/02/2007

These people are so balls to the wall for free trade. They told us that free trade would encourage competition which would in turn drive down the prices.

Well, they got the competition part right, but it seems that without some regulation, all competition is doing is driving down the QUALITY, not the price.

And shouldn't it also be part of free trade that if a company makes a product that kills people, that company SHOULD GO OUT OF BUSINESS instead of getting their bush crony lobbyists to relax the rules for them?

So. Free trade or fair trade? Well, the companies want to be FREE to put profits over people. But, when their product kills one of those people, we have to be FAIR to them and consider that their CEO would only make a 10 million dollar bonus instead of a 12 million dollar bonus if they were forced to make a safe product. Seems the corporations want it both ways, huh? Well, under BushCo they always get what they want...

and we can all just go and eat lead.

[kfdan]

08:37 AM on 09/02/2007

Bush's ideas on accountability and control over industry is short on oversight! Corporations like it that way and Bush being the devoted industry godfather is quite happy to sink watchdogs if it serves his cronies and family's interests!

[joja]

08:26 AM on 09/02/2007

All of this makes perfect sense if you keep in mind the Cheney/Bush regime's goal: the privatization of EVERYTHING.

The Grover Norquist faction of the 'pubs has not been shy about realizing their "dream state" where government has been downsized to the point it can be strangled in a bathtub, and corporate welfare has become "de rigueur."

And if you think they actually CARE about the average American citizen, well, the joke's on you.

[robodweeb]

07:04 AM on 09/02/2007

Hey, ya gotta pay for those tax cuts somehow.

[viflyer]

07:51 AM on 09/02/2007

A few words say it all. ha!

[wcfar]

07:02 AM on 09/02/2007

Of course, of course...it's the one thing the Bush Gestapo has done well. They've ruined government for the common man in favor of all their rich friends not to mention themselves. Rove said (if you can give credence to anything this SS trooper says or does) history will see President Bush as a far-sighted man. What the fuck? Does he mean Bush? Because the guy as president that can't even put a decent phrase together...heh, heh, is an embarassment to us all. The fact that two elections were stolen, and I hope the indictments roll after he's out of office, is the only reason he's in office. His legacy is the lying, cheatin', stealing, legislation editing, money grubbing presidency. Welcome to history shithead.

[sparkey]

08:11 AM on 09/02/2007

Bush will never get to go to trial. There are too many on both sides of congress who got rich from these two terms. That,and the corporations who will tell their members of congress to back off or else no money for re-election campaigns. Bush walks.

[socks1]

09:01 AM on 09/02/2007

That is why it is so very important to examine exactly who the Democrats elect to office. For far too long we voted in corporate friendly Democrats, who became fond of the corporate money for their election funds.

It follows that we must become far more involved in campaign election reform. And opposing free speach = corporate $dollars$.

This isn't socialism or communism, it is good ole fashioned people powered politics.

Get informed---get active!!!!

[RevMetheus]

07:00 AM on 09/02/2007

I think its funny that these manufacturers that were all for "self-regulation" are now calling for stronger rules because the Chinese openly call self-regulation the joke it is. If lighter manufacturers here could make them cheaper than the Chinese could, you wouldnt hear about them pushing for more regulation.

The only time manufacturers want the feds to step in is when "free market" forces conspire to make them lose their advantage over foreign competitors. Then, and only then, do they care about US consumers and health risks.

Again, I told everyone I knew in 2004 that it wasnt who you chose as president, its who THEY chose for the 1500 appointees that really effect your life. Dumb shmucks still voted for Bush, even if they wont admit it now.

[Disturbed2]

06:31 AM on 09/02/2007

The Busholini Regime only cares about money. Safety of children is of no concern. Adults & children safety from China's poison products also of no concern.

[Smirk]

05:27 AM on 09/02/2007

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread just to see what garbage the trolls come up with to defend this behavior.

[viflyer]

07:07 AM on 09/02/2007

I believe the trolls take two forms. The retired guys who hate hippies and socialism. Usually have good health care plans( for now) and pensions and are ultra patriotic. The second form of troll is the " child of the Republican revolution". Someone who has grown up being bombarded with Republican propaganda for the last 25 years. Tucker Carlson is a perfect example.

[Gary47]

01:56 AM on 09/02/2007

Don't suppose its because the bush appointees all sit on the boards of companies that stand to lose boatloads of money if the laws are enforced? Nah, couldn't be that.

[normathumb]

12:54 AM on 09/02/2007

For over a generation our government has been dominated by people who will tell you they hate government. They have railed on about big government programs, government regulations strangling corporations. OSHA has been vilified as well as the Consumer Product Safety Commission. For years the Republicans have loaded the decks of these agencies with corporate thugs who have either gutted the agencies or maid them handmaidens for the industries they should be overseeing. Collapsing infrastructure, poisonous products beyond mere defective, insiders writing their own legislation and paying off politicians in the form of campaign contributions is the price we pay. We are finding out the true cost of Republican leadership. Fight the corporatocracy. They, and the minions doing their bidding, are liars and thieves. So much for the raygun revolution.

[lisakaz]

01:18 AM on 09/02/2007

It is all for the god Mammon. They don't care if they kill your kid or your dad as long as stockholders are happy and their bonuses are fat. Got rope?

[socks1]

08:49 AM on 09/02/2007

Traditionally, the only opposition to Robber Baron type rule, has been collective bargining/unions.

Unions have been vilified by the conventional media thru propaganda pumping up the small number of wrong doings of union bosses. While the major advances have been ignored.

We everyday people began to rely primarily on the Democratic party to defend us and relied less and less on our direct collective voice thru the union.

Many people died to make the gains that kept your children out of sweatshops, allowed women to vote, gave you 5 day work weeks and vacations, protected you air and water from mining sludge and chemical dumps, ect ect.

You can thank Reagan for legislating union collective bargining away. And the corporate Democrats lent a helping hand. And that is why so many Democrats are not Hillary supporters.

I mention Hillary here because so many are uninformed as to why there is so much Democratic opposition to her. Well this is one major reason.

Don't be fooled, just because the name on the door says Democratic, doesn't mean people orientated. Anti-people legislation has been futhered by many of our very own Democrats. So buyer beware. Look at how they voted. I suggest looking up the votes on bankrupcey legislation.

Go figure how it is now all but impossible for a private citizen to declare bankrupcey, however corporations get bailed out of every squeeze, but people get the shaft.

[beholder]

12:49 AM on 09/02/2007

Of the 100 largest economic entities in the world 49 are sovereign nations and 51 are corporations. As globalization stretches it tenticles into nations worldwide this imbalance will only get worse.

No department of our government tasked with corporate oversight has not been gutted or coopted by the very companies they were sworn to regulate in the interest of protecting US citizens. The FCC has allowed massive consolidation of the media and allowed virtual monopolies in some markets. The SEC has presided over blatant corporate fraud, preditory lending,unregulated derivative sales that could very well cause the collapse of global markets. The FDA has become the handmaiden of "ethical" drug companies. OSHA and the bureau which is supposed to regulate mine safety are in league with of those that run the factories and the mines.

Global corporations owe no allegience to any country or its people. Their only concern for humans is that they consume their products or work to produce them at the lowest compensation possible. Middle managers and vice presidents believe by virtue of elevated salaries that they are superior to the average citizen. This delusion and the fear of losing their jobs and status causes them to turn a blind eye to or actively participate in actions which can bring harm to their fellow humans, poisoning them with foods and medicines, killing them or maiming them in unsafe work places, selling them inferior and shoddy products at inflated prices, defrauding them with bogus financial reporting.

Corporations are amoral entites. Bottom line their concern is for one thing only---growth at ANY cost. Their only excuse is that they have a duty to their shareholders, but even that is a lie. Think Enron.

So long as this government gives corporations welfare and allows them to buy votes and pack government agencies with their stooges citizens will be ill served by those they supposedly elect to protect them.

[charon]

01:44 AM on 09/02/2007

Don't forget the betrayal of the people by the Supreme Court, who ruled that corporations have the same rights as citizens and that money is a form of speech.

[1differentdrummer]

05:58 AM on 09/02/2007

Great point! This is almost never talked about and it is a big scandal.