It’s Very Likely Trump’s Secretary Of Education, Reviled By Liberals, Would’ve Been Mitt Romney’s Or Jeb Bush’s Pick Too
Every once in a while we like to try to figure out what evils perpetrated by Trump are pure “Trump” and what are things any Conservative President would’ve pursued. So when the Washington Post reports Betsy DeVos is doing away with nearly 5 dozen department documents intended to clarify the rights of students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, we might want to remind ourselves this could’ve happened during a Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney Presidency too. Evidence? High praise from both Romney and Bush (whom she’s particularly close to) when Trump chose her.
Now, one might argue DeVos might not be so gung-ho about ripping up regulations had Trump not directed her to when he issued an Executive Order calling for the elimination of “unnecessary regulatory burdens”. (And that Bush or Romney might not have done that.) Or maybe DeVos would not have been approved had she appeared as an outlier among a slate of more traditional Cabinet appointees.
Same might be said for EPA Chief Scott Pruitt. The New York Times reports his agency cancelled 3 speeches by its scientists scheduled for today at a conference in Rhode Island, related to climate change. The EPA gave no specific reason, except that the gathering is “not an EPA conference.” Conference organizers like John King, a Professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, call it “scientific censorship.”
The New York Times also reports in-depth on progress chemical manufacturers have made in the past few months getting regulations rolled back intended to keep cancer and birth-defect causing agents out of drinking water.
The Times points the finger at a Pruitt appointee, Nancy Beck, who joined the EPA in May, straight out of a top job with the chemical industry’s top lobbying group. The Times article provides several memos written by concerned officials in the EPA’s Office of Water, who say among other things, Beck’s rewritten a rule “to make it harder to track the health consequences of [a] chemical, and therefore regulate it.”
Still, Beck had some success getting regulations rolled back during the George W. Bush years. So can’t really say that’s necessarily a “Trump Thing” either.
When confronted by the Times with its findings, a newly hired spokesperson for the EPA (until recently a spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council) responded:
“The only thing inappropriate and biased is your continued fixation on writing elitist clickbait trying to attack qualified professionals committed to serving their country.”
Now that’s a “Trump thing”.
(This story originally appeared in “The Chaos Report” Newsletter. Subscribe at https://thechaosreport.com/subscribe/?scr=Medium)
