As long as Trump can get us to watch his bobbing and weaving, his lies, threats, and diversions on immigrants, exoneration, tax audits, his boasting of imaginary victories and scary conspiracies, what’s really going on in the vast, essential operations of the federal government is largely hidden or ignored.
But every once in awhile the awful reality of Trumpian mismanagement emerges. Such as, Boeing planes falling out of the sky due to faulty software. They managed to get aloft because of the deregulation of oversight by the FAA that left the inspection of the company’s products to the company itself. It was argued the technology was so complex Boeing engineers understood it better than government overseers ever could. Apparently not.
This sort of regulatory capture by the entities they are supposed to ride herd on is not new, but under Trump it is increasingly widespread, shameless, and dangerous. Taking the cop off the beat saves taxpayer dollars, pleases corporate donors, allows free market zealots to celebrate. It only has a downside if one of those planes kills you or your child or parent or neighbor of coworker.
Surely, however, this atrocity was a one off. The Trump administration wouldn’t remove or curb the power of regulators all across the government, leaving the public at the mercy of rapacious corporate predators who put profit ahead of probity.
I’m joking. Of course, they would. Trump’s own business career is edifice erected on the basis of cutting corners, double-dealing, scoffing at the law. And now the Art of the Steal is being enabled all across the government.
Case in point, the “Washington Post” reports a new system of pork inspection is being instituted by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. The number of inspectors will be cut by about 40% at the 40 plants that process about 90% of the pork produced in the country.
worry, however, the pork will be inspected by employees of the companies producing the meat for your table. Surely, they can be trusted. And look at the upside. According to estimates from the National Pork Producers Council, this new system where USDA workers “will partner with the pork industry,” will increase line speeds by 12 percent and profits by $2 million a year.
There can’t be a downside to that, can there? Well, USDA veterinarians are responsible for identifying and removing diseased hogs. Under the new deal the line speed will make it harder to detect fecal contamination, a marker for E. coli. Salmonella would no longer be tested for by government employees but by the company. And they would not be required to report to the public the discovery of disease.
An analysis by Kansas State University suggests an undetected outbreak of disease could cost producers and the public $188 billion in herds destroyed and humans sickened as well as $11 billion for State and Federal government responses to meet the crisis.
The pigs at the center of this story are not the farm animals, they are the pork industry and the Trump administration, and their desire to enable less rigorous inspection to make a buck while playing with the lives of consumers who simply want to eat a pork chop or hot dog without risk.
The “great” America Trump hopes to bring back is apparently that describes by Upton Sinclair’s expose of the meatpacking industry in 1904’s “The Jungle.” At first Teddy Roosevelt regarded Sinclair as a socialist crackpot, but when he sent inspectors of his own to look at the reality of the industry, they reported it was even worse than painted in the book. Roosevelt shared the report with Congress and by 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act were law, eventually followed by the FDA and a rigorous USDA inspection regimen.
Do we really want to go back to those good old days, only to be forced to reestablish such safeguards after enough of us get sick and enough pork producers are hauled into court?
Buyer beware, Trump’s motto is not: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” His administration is dedicated to the proposition that “If it’s fixed, let’s break it.” As events have shown in Ethiopia and Indonesia, that’s an expensive and deadly game to play. Not everyone flies of course, but everyone eats. When lax regulation involves the food supply, it’s really worth worrying about.