{"id":289634,"date":"2017-01-11T21:20:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T20:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/a-war-on-regulations\/"},"modified":"2017-01-11T21:20:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T20:20:02","slug":"a-war-on-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/a-war-on-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"A War on Regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The incoming Republican government is waging a war against regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated,\u201d Donald Trump promised<\/a> after the November vote. Since then, Republicans in Congress have voted to give themselves broader authority<\/a> to strike down federal rules of all kinds.<\/p>\n

The way I see the difference between liberals and conservatives is, in part, in their different approaches to our flawed body of regulations. Liberals think we should keep them and improve them. Conservatives would rather scrap many of them altogether.<\/p>\n

Both approaches confront\u00a0the same problem: No government run by humans will ever be perfect. Some regulations give us clean drinking water and safe food, whereas others may be outdated or poorly written.<\/p>\n

And when you\u2019re the one on the wrong side of the red tape \u2014 the small business owner hindered by regulations written for enormous corporations, or the innocent person wrongfully placed on the No Fly List \u2014 your anger and frustration are justified.<\/p>\n

Yet regulations are, at their core, intended to protect us.<\/p>\n

Some are designed to keep terrorists off airplanes or keep violent felons from buying guns. Others ensure that pharmaceuticals are safe and effective, and that food is free from Salmonella and E. coli. Still others keep our air and water clean. <\/p>\n

When we get down to the details, no doubt we\u2019ll differ over what our regulations ought to be. We can debate over what the latest science supports, and what\u2019s in the best interest of the American people.<\/p>\n

Each of us will have different interests of our own, too. If you put representatives of the pesticide industry, conventional and organic farmers, consumers, and doctors around a table, you\u2019ll probably hear a wide range of views about how pesticides ought to be regulated.<\/p>\n

But when it comes down to it, most liberal and conservative voters alike want a safe, healthy, and prosperous country for all. They just don\u2019t agree on how to get there.<\/p>\n

We all want to be sure that food we buy from the store is honestly labeled and safe to eat. We all want the water coming out of our taps to be safe to drink. We don\u2019t want the environment polluted so that our kids get asthma, or more people get cancer. We want the pharmaceuticals we buy to work.<\/p>\n

We want to be secure. We want law enforcement to be effective. We want good roads and schools. We want consumer goods we buy to be safe. We want a thriving economy.\u00a0At their best, that\u2019s what regulations give us.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, of course, they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

But is the answer to wage war on \u201cregulations\u201d as a whole, or to review them and improve them?<\/p>\n

A good regulation protects American citizens in some way. A good regulation is effective and based on the latest science. A good regulation is only imposed where necessary, because the government should avoid restricting the activities of private citizens and businesses wherever possible.<\/p>\n

Should we prune away regulations that aren\u2019t fair or effective? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ll have ideological differences between liberals and conservatives, as well as between different interest groups, over what constitutes a fair and effective regulation.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no need to vilify regulations altogether. When they serve a purpose protecting the American people, they\u2019re in fact part of what makes this country great.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Common Dreams<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The incoming Republican government is waging a war against regulations. \u201cFor every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated,\u201d Donald Trump promised after the November vote. Since then, Republicans in Congress have voted to give themselves broader authority to strike down federal rules of all kinds. The way I see the difference between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-289634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}