President Trump won office by promising to take care of the average Joe and Jane — better jobs, better pay, the end of Wall Street and Washington colluding to enrich themselves and beggar Main Street. He was so rich he couldn’t be bribed. The swamp would be drained, globalism and immigration stopped at the border, America put first, and in this best of all possible worlds, the few would no longer prosper at the expense of the many.
Have average Joe and Jane gotten what they voted for? Not so much. The swamp water is rising and the collusion of the powerful operates with less restraint than ever. Trump has, so far, failed in his attempts to reform taxes by giving bigger breaks to the rich, but he’s working at it and has succeeded in sabotaging healthcare for those on Obamacare, so their insurance will vanish or become prohibitively expense.
However, his biggest successes have not come in passing legislation, which is hard, but in eliminating regulations. Bob Dylan sang, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” So, the Trump administration has chosen to serve the somebodies with the money, that is, people like him.
Lobbyists and corporate insiders are now running the departments that used to regulate them and are busily engaged in cutting the “red tape.” At EPA, clean power rules have been rolled back, arctic drilling has been authorized, dumping toxic pollutants in public waterways has been allowed, the use of neurotoxic pesticides has been authorized, power plant emissions have been relaxed. We have withdrawn from the global Climate Accord, and scientists who are expert in the subject have been sidelined or muzzled.
The Labor Department is rolling back rules to protect workers from exposure to carcinogens, and at Education regulations to stop for-profit schools from using predatory lending practices have been rescinded. Sorry, student borrowers.
The Treasury Department, run by a cadre of Wall Street bankers, has targeted for elimination ninety banking and financial service regulations that were enacted following the crash of 2008 to prevent another orgy of bad faith from sinking the economy again.
The proposed fiduciary rule has been shelved. It would have forced those advising retirees to only sell financial services that are in their customers’ best interest. And a few days ago Vice President Pence cast the tie-breaking vote to deprive victims of chicanery by banks of the right to bring class action law suits against the crooks. Instead, they will be forced to accept arbitration in which the lenders have more power.
This list could be extended at great length, and would only include measures that have been reported on. No one knows how many other regulations have been gutted in the dark. And if Trump gets his wish, a silenced press, we will learn even less of what transpires behind closed doors in Washington.
If the hundreds of regulations that have been eliminated had been ruining the lives of ordinary Janes and Joes, you might expect them to be dancing in the streets and kissing Trump’s ring. But no such groundswell of acclaim has been heard. That’s because the wrecking ball has been taken to measures that protect the health and safety of the general public. The elimination of these regulations pleases a smaller, less vocal constituency — the exploiters who prosper by preying on Joe and Jane.
Almost none of the measures Trump has promoted serve the many who voted for his promise of relief. Rather they improve the lot of the powerful few. Trump voters have fallen for a classic bait and switch. They bought a savior and empowered the predators. Yet they still believe, because Trump tells them so. What he’s doing will make their lives better, and anyone who says otherwise is peddling fake news. If the swamp water is still up to their necks and rising, the fault lies with Chuck and Nancy, Paul and Mitch, not him.
Yet, oddly enough, the buck stops in Trump’s pocket and those of the plutocrats he serves. It is the same scam Putin has worked on the Russians, turning a lifetime of public service into billions in personal wealth. No wonder Trump admires the former communist spy. That, and his rigging the election to make him president.
Why would Putin do that? Maybe because he wanted somebody beholden to him in the White House so they could repeal anti-Putin regulations and sanctions. And he just might get his wish if Trump and Bannon can get a few more candidates, like Roy Moore and Kelli Ward, to swell the Republican majority in the Senate. Donors whose industries Trump has already deregulated can be counted on to contribute to a worthy cause. Self-interest makes the world go round.