Crippling Government From Within

[Ronald Reagan]

Government can do good things, when pols want it too.

Editorial
Crippling Government From Within
New York Times

The Bush administration has proved indefatigable at finding industry foxes to upend the regulatory chicken coops. The result has been an undermining of restraints on everything from strip miners to long-haul truckers and corporate executives intent on consumer-unfriendly mergers.

One of the most zealous of the antiregulatory ideologues is Edwin Foulke, tapped by President Bush last year to run the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. As South Carolina’s Republican Party chairman and an anti-union stalwart, Mr. Foulke worked tirelessly to weaken the agency’s enforcement authority on workplace safety. Now that he is OSHA’s chief, he is moving even more aggressively away from regulations in favor of corporations’ pledges to police themselves.

The dangers of a do-next-to-nothing OSHA were described in searching detail by Stephen Labaton of The Times in a report focusing on a life-threatening lung disease suffered by workers at microwave popcorn factories who regularly inhale a butter-flavor additive, diacetyl. The problem first turned up seven years ago, with some workers needing lung transplants. Yet OSHA failed to mandate safety standards or step up plant inspections.

An OSHA inspector sent to a plant three years after workers began getting sick certified that it complied with regulations — and cited air sampling done four years earlier by an insurer. Another inspector was dispatched to conclude that even if there was a problem, nothing could be done. Why? Because a standard defining safe limits for diacetyl had never been written — by OSHA.

President Bush blessed the shameful retreat by OSHA early on, signing the Republican Congress’s repeal of an ergonomics regulation for workers. Corporate gratitude has been clear.

In the Bush years, Republicans have reaped most of $630 million in donations from the three biggest industries regulated by OSHA: transportation, agribusiness and construction. Those industries obviously like what they see and hear from Mr. Foulke, who can’t emphasize enough that he “firmly believes in limited government.”

[Standtall]

"indefatigable" I hate this word.

I also hate the way he used "searching" in this part "described in searching detail".

Why can't writers stop trying to smart thing sup, and simply say what they are trying to say.

As for the article, it is clearly biased.

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

Originally Posted by Standtall

"indefatigable" I hate this word.

The only good use of this word was in Monty Python's The HOly Grail in the Camelot song...


And, there the NYTimes goes again, sounding the call for more regulation and more gummint. No wonder that paper his heading down the toilet...who honestly looks around and thinks the most pressing situation faced by America today is a shortfall of regulation???

The gummint is not the answer to the problem. It IS the problem.

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

Originally Posted by Standtall

As for the article, it is clearly biased.

No...you don't say. The New York Times biased?!?

Now I've heard it all.

[Ronald Reagan]

Originally Posted by Standtall

"indefatigable" I hate this word.

I also hate the way he used "searching" in this part "described in searching detail".

Why can't writers stop trying to smart thing sup, and simply say what they are trying to say.

As for the article, it is clearly biased.

It is an editiorial.

[MountainHawk]

Anything that cripples government from ruining more lives is a good thing.

[Ronald Reagan]

Originally Posted by MountainHawk

Anything that cripples government from ruining more lives is a good thing.

Yeah, thankfully those people were free to need new lungs!

There are also more than a few dead miners that would also take issue with the 'relaxing' (or non-enforcement) of saftey standards.

[Doctor Infinity]

Originally Posted by Ronald Reagan

The entire publication is an editiorial.

IFYP

[Ronald Reagan]

Originally Posted by Doctor Infinity

IFYP

Cute, attack the NYT's. I've never heard that before. Back to national review (where reality meets Republican ideas!)

[Doctor Infinity]

Originally Posted by Ronald Reagan

Cute, attack the NYT's. I've never heard that before. Back to national review (where reality meets Republican ideas!)

LIberal tactic #42: "Apples and Oranges" - making ridculous comparisons, such as that between a publication which falsely purports to be objective vesus one that is openly honest about its political orientation.

Well done!