Trump’s Deadly Deregulatory Blitz Begins
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump’s Day One executive orders included a freeze on completed regulations that are about to take effect and the repeal of many of President Joe Biden’s important executive orders on regulation. Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“It’s not surprising that Trump wants to stop federal agencies in their tracks from doing their jobs and protecting the public. But Biden’s executive orders on regulation actually did what Trump, Musk, and Republicans say they support – which is to account for regulatory costs and benefits. Trump’s actions show that his agenda is not about efficient regulation, but about removing protections for the American people to spike corporate profits even higher.
“Trump, Musk, and Republicans are against accurately counting the benefits of worker, health, safety, consumer financial, and environmental protections, which in their eyes only have costs to corporations instead of priceless benefits to the American public. They’re against using science to set policy and trying to erase environmental considerations from rulemaking. And they’re against the public having a say in the regulatory process, which they think should be left to greedy CEOs, corporate lobbyists, and highly conflicted cabinet officials who used to work for the companies they’re now regulating.
“Meanwhile, they’re in favor of protecting Big Corporate profits and billionaire bank accounts at the expense of the working class and vulnerable communities. They’re in favor of making it harder for individuals and families to access promised government benefits by forcing more paperwork on them. They’re in favor of rigged, anticompetitive markets and gigantic monopolies that raise prices while lowering the quality of their products and services. And they’re in favor of wiping out popular, longstanding safeguards that shield all of us from corporate abuses, scams, and predation.
“Make no mistake: Trump’s deregulatory actions will mean higher prices for everyone, more injuries and illnesses, and more deaths. Trump’s deregulatory blitz will be great news for greedy corporations and CEOs, but it will make the rest of us worse off.”