It's the year 2016, and there's still one very basic economic principle that "fiscal conservatives" and so-called "free market" Republicans refuse to understand.
Regulations are good.
Seriously.
And they aren't just good for you and me.
They're actually really, really, good for the economy as a whole.
And really, when you think of it, that just makes sense. Just like you wouldn't enjoy a football or baseball game without rules for the game and umpires and referees to implement and enforce them, we similarly don't want people or companies engaging in the game of business, particularly when those businesses produce physical or economic poisons, without specific rules and referees to protect the public. If you ask any Republican though, they'll tell you that Democrats should never be elected because Democrats support "business killing regulations".
Republican politicians actually put their hatred for regulations and regulatory agencies at the center of their platforms, and they use it to bolster their credibility as anti-American-government fiscal conservatives.
Back in 2012, Rick Perry tried to make the case during a Republican debate that the so-called "free market" could work its supposed magic if the federal government just did away with three agencies, and he almost
remembered all three of them.
Ted Cruz one-upped Perry this year in the Republican primary by offering to abolish four agencies, and he'd even abolish the Department of Commerce
twice.
Those gaffs were entertaining during the Republican debates, but now Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, and he's been saying
for months that he wants to do away with environmental protections.
But the fact is, Trump and the anti-regulation Republicans are flat out dead wrong about regulations, and especially environmental regulations.
Dr. Joe Romm at
ClimateProgress points out that cutting the Environmental Protection Agency might increase GDP, but he also points out that GDP is a terrible measure of a country's true economic well-being.
And that's not a new opinion, that's what
Robert Kennedy pointed out in a speech at Kansas University shortly before he was assassinated 48 years ago.
Coincidentally, the very agencies that protect our children's health and assure their educations are the same agencies that Trump and the other anti-American-government Republicans want to eliminate to quote "save costs" and "shrink the budget" to make space for more tax cuts and tax loopholes for billionaires.
The truth is though, that government investments in new regulations from agencies like the EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Energy actually create hundreds of billions of dollars more in benefits for the general public than they cost.
