Despite legislative ineptitude, Trump is doing plenty of damage

Monday, Nov. 6, 2017 | 2 a.m.

It’s tempting to think of President Donald Trump as being all mouth when it comes to his boasts about how much he’s accomplished as president.

But even though he’s suffered major political losses (on health care and his border wall, to name a couple) and has been laughably incapable of dealing with Congress despite enjoying Republican majorities in both chambers, Trump is definitely leaving a mark on Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, that mark is a massive, ugly bruise that will leave Americans hurting in very real ways.

Trump has taken a wrecking ball to regulations aimed at protecting U.S. citizens from dangerous chemicals, toxic materials, and air and water pollution. Other executive actions put wildlife and natural areas at risk, and threaten supplies of clean water.

Just as alarming, Trump is making appointments to courts and regulatory bodies that are likely to clear the way for more dismantling of health, workforce and consumer protections.

A few cases in point:

• Trump’s nominee to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Dana Baiocco, is an attorney who has defended several companies accused of selling faulty or dangerous products, and she helps companies handle recall or crisis situations.

• The Trump administration backed off a planned ban on a neurotoxic pesticide, chlorpyrifos, that is so nasty that the Environmental Protection Agency determined there was no safe level for it in drinking water. Studies have shown that the chemical damages the brain and causes tremors in children, and researchers have linked it to lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease in adults.

• Closer to home, the administration is reviewing a plan to protect sage grouse habitat, raising the possibility of opening environmentally sensitive areas to oil and gas drilling, mining and other commercial uses. Although Nevadans are divided on the importance of protecting the bird, the practical effect of rolling back the plan would be the endangerment of an array of wildlife species, as the sage grouse isn’t the only animal to live in its habitats.

• Also of particular importance to Nevadans, the Labor Department stalled a requirement for mines to be inspected before the start of a work shift.

These are just a few of numerous examples of Trump’s blunt-force attack on common-sense regulations that were either adopted during the Obama administration or were in place when Obama left office. These examples have happened quietly while Trump’s rollbacks of the Clean Power Plan, the clean water rule established by former President Barack Obama, and the scaleback of EPA funding were receiving extensive publicity.

A deregulation tracker being maintained by the Brookings Institution was up to 64 items as of Thursday — regulations that had either been delayed, rolled back or rescinded, or were on the chopping block.

Trump claims his actions are part of his promise to “drain the swamp” and unshackle business from “job-killing regulations,” but his targets show that his motive is actually to create a bonanza for big-money Republican Party donor industries such as oil and gas, big agriculture, big pharma and manufacturing. Sample titles from the Brookings tracker: Penalty for Drug Company Overcharging, Oil and Gas Fracking Rule, Methane Rule (Venting and Flaring), Lowering Renewable Fuel Standards and many more.

Trump may be a failure in establishing political policy, but he’s been remarkably effective in his day-to-day assault on government. It’s crucial that Americans not let a lack of headlines lull them into thinking Trump’s not doing them harm.