Bush's Midnight Regulations Value Profits More Than People
The nation's most unpopular president -- a head of state even more reviled than the one who resigned in disgrace -- is cunningly planning revenge.
The legacy of George W. Bush's final days in office will be degradation of the environment, endangered species and the safety of working people.
The Bush administration is rushing to finalize dozens of new regulations, many without normal hearings or comment periods. Such last minute presidential policy-mucking is so common that the rules have a name -- "midnight regulations." This set reveals Bush's values.
They show he's willing to sicken and kill working man and beast to accommodate profit, to further enrich his business buddies, the chamber of commerce, the wealthiest of wealthy to whom he gave that big tax break in the earliest days of his administration.
Killed could be those who drive on roadways with truckers -- any of us -- as well as the truckers themselves. One new rule will enable employers to schedule truck drivers for a grueling 77 hours in a seven-day period, give them just 34 hours off, then work them another 77 hours over seven days. Public Citizen, an advocacy group that twice in the past three years successfully persuaded courts to invalidate almost identical standards, says the new regulation creates sweatshops on wheels and ignores statistics showing 5,000 people killed and 110,000 seriously injured a year in crashes with large trucks.
Also killed by Bush's midnight regulations could be endangered species which would lose protection. One regulation eliminates the mandatory outside evaluation of new federally-approved development projects that might affect endangered plants or animals. The assessment was done by experts from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The new rule will allow the government agencies involved in the projects to determine whether their roads, bridges, dams, mines or logging would further threaten the species, regardless of the agency's expertise.
Sickened could be those who work in and live around power plants. Now, when utilities build or renovate plants, they're required to install the latest pollution control devices. The new rule will allow them to circumvent that Clean Air Act requirement. The Bush administration estimates that its evasion-regulation will put an additional 70 million tons of carbon dioxide -- the greenhouse gas that's warming the planet -- into the atmosphere each year. That does not even address the particulates and acid rain that result from power generation pollution.
Also sickened could be those who work with toxic substances and hazardous chemicals. Among the most outrageous of the regulations is one that will make it more difficult for the federal government to limit workers' exposure to these substances.
The rule will add an extra step to the already lengthy process of creating standards to protect exposed workers. Advocated by business groups, it will require federal agencies to gather and analyze industry-by-industry evidence of workers' exposure to substances. The director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO estimates that it will add two years to the process of writing standards that frequently takes eight years as it is. For example, the government has been developing standards for silica, a lung carcinogen, for 11 years.
What makes Bush's decision to move forward with this regulation particularly egregious is that President-elect Barack Obama clearly stated his objection to it. In September, candidate Obama urged the Labor Department to abandon this proposed regulation, and he and four other senators introduced a bill that would have prohibited the Department from issuing it. The letter says the regulation would "create serious obstacles to protecting workers from health hazards on the job."
This pile of new rules is the insult to eight years of Bush regulatory injury. For example, for seven and a half years, the Bush Labor Department did not voluntarily issue a single health directive. Only under court order did it finally implement one health regulation. Not only that, it failed to write rules when it should have, for example, on beryllium exposure. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration backed off updating half-century-old standards for exposure to dust and fumes from the metal which can cause debilitating lung disease if inhaled even in tiny amounts. The Bush administration eliminated 22 of OSHA's proposed health and safety rules. In addition, it gutted OSHA's budget and staff.
Similarly, Bush didn't enforce existing regulations to protect workers. The Government Accountability Office, which audits federal departments, has found that the Bush Labor Department failed to adequately provide basic pay and overtime protections for low-wage workers complaining that employers stiffed them for overtime and minimum wage. The GAO also found that the Labor Department reduced enforcement actions for wage violations to a low of 30,000 in 2007. It was 47,000 a decade earlier.
The Labor Department's own inspector general reported that the agency neglected to complete federally-mandated inspections at more than 14 percent of the nation's coal mines -- in a year when worker deaths more than doubled to 47.
After all of that, Bush is pressing forward on his midnight regulations, knowing that Obama opposes them. He's doing so even though he publically contended that he wanted to make the transition to the Obama administration as smooth as possible.
Bush told ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson in an exit interview that it's not his failures or accomplishments in office that are most important to him, but going home, looking in the mirror and being able to say: "I did not compromise my principles. And I didn't. I made tough calls. And some presidents have got a lot of tough decisions to make."
There are no tough decisions involved in these directives. There are only political ones. By implementing his midnight regulations, Bush clearly illustrates that his primary concern is not the health of American workers but, instead, the principal of his wealthy business friends.
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168 hours in a week.
77 hours working.
leaves 91 hours.
minus 56 hours for sleep.
leaves 35 hours.
minus 14 hours a week to shower and eat.
leaves 21 hours.
minus 3 hours a week shopping for food and stuff.
leaves 18 hours.
minus 4 hours a week for laundry and house cleaning.
leaves 14 hours.
minus 1 hours a week for bills and banking.
leaves 13 hours.
minus 1 hours a week in the bathroom for "what ever ".
leave 12 hours.
minus 1 hour a week driving to work.
Now that is 11 hours times 52 weeks a year equals 573.571...
573.571 hours out if 10,932,480 hours a year to be human and deal with all the problem of being a human.
THAT 1.571..... HOURS A DAY PEOPLE TO HAVE A LIFE OUT SIDE OF WORK.
THANKS BUSH !
YOU COULD HAVE JUST MADE US SLAVES BUT ECONOMIC SLAVERY IS CHEAPER FOR BUSINESSES.
whatever, this is no revelation.
Bush's Pre-Midnight regulations, and Post midnight regulations since the beginning of his administration put people at the bottom of the money filter and put big Profiteering over them.
Make no mistake, its never ever been about helping corporations sustain and prosper, its always been about profitable companies doing just fine getting even more profits to deliver to shareholders, owners, and officers and execs for doing nothing but lobbying republicans.
And never passing any of those lower costs as savings to the consumer and in fact defrauding consumers with higher prices, while taking higher and higher profiteering to the bank.
"One new rule will enable employers to schedule truck drivers for a grueling 77 hours in a seven-day period, give them just 34 hours off, then work them another 77 hours over seven days."
There has been a massive truck driver shortage this decade, plus this allows drivers to drive that long, doesn't obligate them to.
"One regulation eliminates the mandatory outside evaluation of new federally-approved development projects that might affect endangered plants or animals."
These so called evaluation have slowed up development dramatically over the years, often needlessly.
"That does not even address the particulates and acid rain that result from power generation pollution.
This might be important if acid rain was an issue.
== There has been a massive truck driver shortage this decade, plus this allows drivers to drive that long, doesn't obligate them to.
== These so called evaluation have slowed up development dramatically over the years, often needlessly.
== This might be important if acid rain was an issue.
==========
So, DuganS1 - You don't care if the 5,000 people killed every year in truck crashes increases in the coming years? Do you need to get your next big screen TV delivered today instead of next week? Do you think that drivers will refuse to drive the hours requested / demanded by their employer? With so many people out of work, would they risk giving their boss a reason to choose them first for a layoff?
Slower development might have kept hundreds of needless strip malls, big box stores and now-empty condos from being built in the first place. Not to mention the irreversible destruction of important wetlands, marshes and such. With less development in the Mississippi delta, New Orleans would have had more natural protection from Katrina. How many almost identical stores do you need to feel you have enough shopping choices? Since the retail sector has been terribly overbuilt - we will have hundreds of empty storefronts for years to come - that makes for a nice neighborhood, doesn't it.
You mock acid rain - it is a fact, and remains a significant problem in the Northeast. It makes for pristine looking, clear lakes and rivers - with
No point in arguing with Dugan. He's a lost cause.
What a myth that laissez faire Capitalism works for the benefit of workers.
The more "free" the free market system is, the more the executives milk the stock prices of their companies for their own benefit until the jig is up and workers wages are reduced and they are laid off.
America has its head in the sand. It was only 80 years ago that Teddy Roosevelt railed agains child and other abusive labor practices, stock speculators and impoverished workers. And only 6 years since the waive of Enron-like scandals, which have only escalated since then.
And yet Americans continue to buy stocks - effectively inflating the exorbitant and obscene "compensation" these crooks pay themselves.
America has two religions: The Stock Market and Pills.
Great article!! It seems like the philosophy of the Leading Republicans behind the scenes has been that the less wealthy, middle class or poor are disposables to be used in their wealth building. We got it and we have responded.
Is he the worst president in U.S. history YET?
BUSH IS BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL, TO ALLOW CORPORATIONS, TO POLUTE THE WATER, AIR, LOOSEN UP SAFETY RULES, IN THE WORKPLACE, OR WHAT EVER THEY WANT TO DO
He retired the trophy.
When did Republicans almost become the party of evil? Bush, in his last days, is undoing pollution regulatons, making it harder for agencies to protect endangered species, undoing regulations that have the effect of making people vulnerable to toxic substances, and whatever other damge he could wreak in his final days. All this damage, while talking to the press about how he is misunderstood. I guess Bush wants to go out by putting an exclamation point to his record as our nation's worst president. Republicans continue to reward big business as opposed to the general good. I think Americans are tired of being wary of our own government. We want to trust it and public officials again. Obama arrived just in time!!
Well said Mr. President. As usual!
And this is a surprise to everyone?
He has NEVER cared about America or it's citizens only about how much he could make before he left office.
Sure hope someone has plans for this clown that involves courts and justice.
Yea, and I'm so glad that he's against abortion! "how's that workin for ya?"
"Bush's Midnight Regulations Value Profits More Than People"
Wow, big surprise.
Funny how LAW PASSED BY CONGRESS can be over ridden by Bush so easily !
I would love to see some kind of Presidential Moratorium on these Midnight Regulations and Last minute Pardons.
At the moment we have an administration that has either ignored every law or simply made the changes they wanted. So how about if in the early days of the Obama Administration he nullifies all Midnight Regulations put in place by Bush and revokes all pardons. And then stripes those powers from the President forever.
It’s a pipedream, I know.
I disagree. While it's bad how bush is abusing the system, it's been working just fine for the last 200+ years, and I would like to keep it that way.
I do agree that Obama should immediately invalidate all these rules, ASAP.
Unfortunately I almost agree with your comment. The problem is the same as it always was.
Bad people will always be able to cause more damage faster than good people can react or repair said damage.
The idea that there is a backdoor in place that allows Recess appointments, last minute Presidential Pardons and last minute Regulation changes is antiquated at best. But when you have lawyers involved there is always a problem closing loopholes because the very people that are against them may want to use them in the future so they leave them in place.
We need to restore Checks and Balances in our government. But that in itself would open us up to further Republican Obstructionism.
I agree with you in theory, but unfortunately once Pandora's box is opened, it remains open. Not to mention the abuses other American president's have made. Bush is not the first. Read about the last minute antics of other Presidents and you'll be surprised at the least. Although W. is now a "Lame Duck", ducks of all colors are hard to see in the dark!
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