Obama Rule Review Leaves Some Nervous, Skeptical

[XanaDUer]

There are rules on how to keep water clean and how much water should be used to flush a toilet; for how much gas cars can guzzle, and – under one now in the works – for rear-view cameras or sensors to keep drivers from backing over toddlers; for how to build commercial airplanes – right down to their nuts and bolts – and for how to launch amateur model rockets.

Obama's pledge to put the federal rulebook under a microscope has conservatives clamoring for him to rip up pages of red tape, yet skeptical he will deliver. Liberals increasingly worry that the Obama administration will bow to political pressure and weaken or scrap important health, safety and environmental protections.

The notion that there are reams of "dumb" rules ripe for the taking is rejected by experts on federal regulation. They say any easy targets already were eliminated by past administrations that made their own runs at over-regulation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/03/obama-rule-review-leaves-_n_844089.html

[FormerDittoHead]

1. The Obama administration bow to political pressure? NEVER!!!! NEVER!!!!

>Liberals increasingly worry that the Obama administration will bow to political pressure and weaken or scrap important health, safety and environmental protections.

Oh come on! What possible reason would they have to worry about THAT???

:sarcasm:
:sarcasm:
:sarcasm:
:sarcasm:

[inna]

5. "bow to"? that's his agenda, i think that's pretty clear.

[ThomCat]

9. From the very start. True.

:(

[grahamhgreen]

12. The guy is HOPE-less.

[Autumn]

2. I am getting to the point to where

whenever he pledges he will fix or reform something I get very nervous.
Edited to add whenever

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. To be fair he does need to lessen some regulations. In particular the ones that make

selling diesel vehicles cost prohibitive here.

you know a lot of regulations were lobbied for by corporations. not all of it is good.

[XanaDUer]

7. Yes, I'm trying to keep an open mind on this one.

nt.

[Bluerthanblue]

8. +100

kudos for being fair-

:hi:

[ThomCat]

11. Do you really believe, for even a moment,

that any single regulation that a corporation WANTS and PAID FOR with their lobbying bribes is ever going to be cut?

The whole point of this witch hunt, demanded by republicans and corporate lobbyists, is to cut the regulations that they don't like. Not the ones that they do like.

So, for example, regulations that prevent municipal jurisdictions from competing with corporations by offering their own local internet services? I guarantee those kinds of regulations will not get cut. That would cut into corporate profits and weaken the big telecom giants.

Another example, regulations that impose greater transparency and financial reporting requirements upon unions than upon corporations and other organizations? I guarantee that those regulations won't be cut either. They were put in place to weaken unions, and to make sure that corporations always has an open legal window into the inner workings of unions that gives companies an unfair advantage against them. Corporations won't give up that advantage.

How about regulations that allow the government to control what mining and drilling can take place on some Indian Reservations, set the reimbursement rate on behalf of the Native Americans living them (at an absurdly artificially low rate, of course), and "manage" that money for them, and paying them the dividends. There have been lawsuits because the Department of the Interior has either lost or failed to keep adequate records, couldn't account for millions of dollars, and wasn't paying dividends regularly or consistently. The amounts paid would also drop unexpectedly even when the output was consistent and the market value was going up, without explanation. But, oh, that lost paperwork again, makes it impossible to explain, to it gets written off as an acceptable "oops." Guaranteed, the regulations for all of this won't get chopped, putting the reservations back in charge of their own land and resources. The mining and drilling companies have too much of a sweetheart arrangement with too many people inside the bureau of land management and the department of the interior.

But OSHA regulations that force corporations to act in ways that protect people from harm, those are what they want on the chopping block.

Labor regulations that prevent child labor, below-minimum-wage exceptions for large classes of jobs, those will be scrutinized.

Anything that We The People won from the corporations over the last century will be on the chopping block. But not their victories over us.

[Shagbark Hickory]

14. Welllll... again, to be fair, he did get rid of the student loan middleman.

But alas you're probably right.

[ThomCat]

16. Yes, he did get rid of the student loan middleman

But, notice that he did not overhaul the way student loans are handled.

You still cannot discharge student loans through bankruptcy. Which means that a student loan debt can be a lifetime noose around your neck if you become poor or unemployed.

Schools still have incentive to pile you up with student loans, without any consideration for whether or not you will be able to pay them off when you graduate. So it is still very likely that the only way poor students will get to college is by accumulating a lifetime of that debt they will never be able to fully pay off or escape from.

The tricks that banks play to multiply student loan debts are still not outlawed if your loans come from a bank, even if they are subsidized. For example: If you have one large loan from a bank, that bank can break up your loan into separate smaller loans and sell it to multiple other banks. One small loan per semester you were in school. Selling your small loans gives that bank an infusion of cash.

Now, instead of having one large loan with a 15 year term, you might have 8 small loans with simultaneous 5 year terms. That is much, much more expensive to pay back. If you aren't able to find where all those tiny loans are because some of the paperwork telling you were the loans now reside were "lost" then you can't make the payments and they get to start charging you penalties, fees, and increased interest rates. Having any portion in default allows the other banks to increase the interest rate on the other portions too.

By the time you find all the small pieces and re-consolidate your loans into one loan again, your balance will be substantially higher than the amount you thought you owed. The fee to consolidate is typically 8%-10% of the total, so you take a big financial hit in order to re-consolidate your loan just to fix the damage the banks did to you.

By the time all is said and done, it is not unusual for the loan amount to be almost double what you should have been paying, just because of bank shenanigans.

They write the rules. They know the rules. The rules are there so that they are guaranteed to make as much money as possible, and you will be forced to pay. With bankruptcy out of the question, there is no way out.

The US Department of Education knows all about the scams and problems with student loans. So why haven't they, or the Justice Department, or Obama himself proposed to do anything to fix this problem? You would think that they would want people to be able to go to college without be systematically screwed by the banks.

But as we see repeatedly, any reform involving banks is usually token and partial, and always leaves wide open opportunities for the banks to keep taking advantage of people so that their profit margins never suffer. Government wants the press to give them credit for helping us, but government will always really work to help the banks. The banks give the politicians far too much money for them to ever regulate the banks.

[inna]

4. and the hits keep coming and coming. we haven't even seen anything yet.

Obama starts to frighten me, frankly.

[Kip Humphrey]

6. Say goodbye to rules protecting people AND to rules limiting corporations.

[madfloridian]

10. That sounds sort of like what Rick Scott wants to do in Florida.

It has passed committee with 4 Democrats voting for it.

It is directed in great part at rules that protect the environment and the state economy.

"HB 993 would allow Cabinet members during their first six months in office to repeal rules if they are obsolete or if they conflict with policies they are trying to implement. The repeal could be challenged, but Cabinet members could individually override the challenge. An objection to the override could be filed with the 1st District Court of Appeal.

Gov. Rick Scott is currently reviewing more than 11,400 existing rules. He has targeted more than 1,400 for repeal and or revision, and more than 1,200 for revision. Most of those are in the departments of Business and Professional Regulation and Environmental Protection."

[XanaDUer]

13. Sigh

that doesn't make me feel better. Is there any pushback against RS in FL yet? I am telling everyone that he is cutting funds for the disabled in FL, and then went to a Special Olympics photo op.

[Marr]

15. People doubting Obama here are being unfair.

I have no doubt he'll ask for a range of input from industry CEO's, then studiously alphabetize all their demands before approving them.