Last night I did a piece on the latest New York Times/CBS News poll which showed that the American people hate Congress more than ever, don’t like the Republicans or their presidential candidates, and don’t like the Republicans’ proposed solutions for the jobs crisis. But there was one Republican idea that polled fairly well. According to the New York Times, “half of the public favors reducing or repealing regulations on businesses in the United States.” Nothing else the Republicans are selling can garner 50% support, so it’s not too surprising that they are hitting the “regulations” meme pretty hard. Except, as Steve Benen points out, regulations aren’t strangling the economy and President Obama has introduced fewer new regulations at this point in his presidency than George W. Bush had at this point in his.
The notion that regulations are hurting the economy has already been so thoroughly debunked, it’s safe to conclude that anyone who repeats it is not to be trusted. But there’s another angle to the talking point that’s equally important: Obama hasn’t approved massive new regulations.
What Mr. Benen doesn’t mention is that the Republican presidential candidates aren’t just complaining about regulations. They’re almost universally calling for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency. Some are adding the Department of Energy and/or the Department of the Interior to the chopping block. I don’t know how well those ideas poll, but I can’t imagine the country has developed a thirst for destroying the environment and eliminating wilderness spaces.
In any case, since the only idea the Republicans have that has any support at all is to reduce regulations on businesses, we can expect them to continue to flog that horse.
In any case, since the only idea the Republicans have that has any support at all is to reduce regulations on businesses, we can expect them to continue to flog that horse.
And the Tan Man’s spokesbot was doing that this morning on the Twitter machine.
Time for the professor in the Oval Office to teach a history lesson on why the EPA was created in the first place. With illustrations.
Christ, I wish my country wasn’t so fucking stupid.
Maybe it’s time for cabinet departments to do commercials during the superbowl.
But none of the people polled probably could name one regulation they’d like to see reduced or repealed. The repugnants have given the word ‘regulation’ a bad reputation. In fact, if tje pollster named specific regulations like food safety and automobile safety and pharmaceuticals, the percentages would almost certainly be much lower. The proof of the poll is in the pollster, the question and its phrasing, which everyone knows. That’s why half the polls are nervous, busybody crap: a business that is dying to be regulated.
Lots of people hate CAFE standards (stops them from buying the cars they want). Lots of people hate Durbin’s swipe fee limits and resulting monthly bank fees. Make that LOTS of people. The blowback is really strong on this. And I agree that there didn’t seem to be a need for government to regulate those fees. Merchants could deal with the banks/networks or not or negotiate fees. The Illinois Transportation Department will accept Discover or MasterCard, but not Visa. My local locksmith won’t take a card for anything below $10 because of swipe fees.
It will never cease to amuse me that when it comes to the intersection between business and government, the “socialist” Barack Obama is, historically speaking, not even as liberal as…George H.W. Bush. Wow. And yet the right has gone so completely batshit insane that it could not matter less.
I worry that the 1994 election irrevocably fucked our government. And that 2000-08 was only the icing on the cake.
Or you could argue it was the 1980 election or the 1968 election or…
But I wouldn’t argue that the 68 or 80 elections irrevocably fucked the nation. Think about the ozone hole. Big, industry toppling, environmental hippie shit, and Reagan signed that treaty with unanimous support. Or nuclear disarmament with the Soviet Union. Republicans, for all their various criminal doings, still gave a shit about accomplishing big things every once in a while.
When’s the last time a Republican in Washington was enthusiastic to accomplish something, rather than just take, take, take it all away? No Child Left Behind? Holy shit, No Child Left Behind.
Something broke in the Republican psyche between 92 and 94 and they became the party of perpetual opposition. To every damn thing. Except enriching the wealthiest few. That’s all they exist to do anymore.
They thought that Ronald Reagan had given them the permanent Republican majority. He didn’t but Jesse Helms showed them the effectiveness of slash and burn politics and the lesson was not lost on Newt Gingrich and other Southern GOP leaders. And they started playing the religious card in earnest.
In 2000, they achieved a comeback through the heavy hand of the Republicans on the Supreme Court. Unprecedented in its cynicism. By that point, the culture war was no longer a metaphor. Again, they thought they had created the permanent Republican majority. Again in 2008 after getting the consequences of every policy they wanted, they lost it again. To a black guy. With an Islamic name. From Hawaii. That sent them over the edge. And they escalated their war.
Their illusion is that they speak for Nixon’s Silent Majority of “Real Americans”. That is what keeps getting punctured and driving them nuts.
We haven’t seen the blizzard of regulations that are sure to come from the Affordable Healthcare Act. Not that that is a bad thing.
Well, nobody likes being told what to do. It must be easy to craft a poll question that evokes the right(ist) response.
Like, “Is the government the boss of you?”
The regulations that really irritate people are the local ones that are applied arbitrarily like the access to public places, or building requirement, or zoning exceptions. Or the way some sanitation regulations get applied arbitrarily against restaurants.
That would show up in an issue poll but not really be related to national politics.
Parking regulations, land use regulations. local nuisance laws. But TSA regulations burn up lots of travelers also.
Of course, they don’t understand that those are not the regulations Republicans want to eliminate. Republican counties and towns here have more of those nuisances than Democratic areas. That way, they can grant variances to favored business (i.e. theirs!). Republican Party of Illinois is just as crooked as the Democratic Party of Illinois. In addition they are unscientific, elitist, religious fanatic bigots.