Red tape saves lives | Nation

Shortly after his re-election as president, Donald Trump selected two close supporters, Tesla CEO Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to create a company called DOGE (formerly DOGE). Department)’s advisory committee, named after the internet meme. The work would be done outside the government — the president can’t create a new department himself — and would have no authority to actually make the cuts, since that’s reserved for Congress. Even so, Musk has pledged to cut the government’s $5.4 trillion in annual spending (not including the interest the government pays on its debt) by at least $2 trillion. Trump has vowed to preserve Social Security and Medicare, which each account for nearly $1.5 trillion. Therefore, Musk’s pledge means eliminating almost everything else the government does, including defense spending. By convening groups like DOGE and throwing out big numbers, Musk, Trump and Ramaswamy are sending a clear message: Government is wasteful and unnecessary. Musk and Ramaswamy didn’t provide many specific details about their goals, but those missing details will be significantly alleviated if cuts begin. The abstract “government” sounds prosaic at best and malicious at worst. But when it’s gone, Americans will miss it.

Do you like breathing air and drinking water? The EPA ensures that companies cannot release chemicals into the air without consequences, nor can they dump them into groundwater. Remember acid rain? This was a big problem until the EPA started regulating it in the 1990s, and then it all but disappeared.

Would you like to eat foods that don’t make you sick and take medications that don’t make you sick? Getting rid of government means getting rid of the Food and Drug Administration’s power to ensure the safety of drugs before they hit the market. It would eliminate the Department of Agriculture’s oversight of food processing, ensuring our products and meats aren’t covered in feces or covered in metal shards.

Do you enjoy commuting on pothole-free highways and bridges that don’t collapse? Would you like to fly in planes that don’t collide in the sky? You can thank the Department of Transportation, which allocates funds to maintain and improve infrastructure and oversees the air traffic control system. Last year, at least 10 major bridges in poor condition were repaired. There has been no fatal crash by a major U.S. airline in 15 years, the longest such crash in history.

Would you like to get paid fairly when you go to work and avoid dying on the job? The Department of Labor ensures that employers pay at least the minimum wage, do not deduct wages by charging tips or incorrectly deducting wages, and do not pay extra money for overtime. The department has returned more than $1 billion in stolen wages to workers over the past four years. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the only agency charged with preventing employers from cutting corners that result in avoidable illness, injury and death on the job. Since its creation in 1970, daily workplace fatalities have dropped by 60% and injuries and illnesses have dropped by 75%.

Musk floated the idea of ​​”removing the CFPB” (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), calling it a “duplication.” Instead, the CFPB is solely responsible for putting billions of dollars back into consumers’ pockets. Since its founding in 2011, it has provided more than $21 billion in compensation, debt relief and other relief to more than 205 million consumers. The bureau has taken action against junk charges deposited into bank accounts, identified erroneous information on credit reports, ensured lenders adhered to non-discriminatory practices and cracked down on shady debt collectors. It provides full compensation to victims of the Wells Fargo fake account scandal.

There are countless examples of government protections that Americans take for granted every day, not to mention the welfare programs that help them make ends meet. Does the government fulfill all these responsibilities perfectly? Absolutely not. But poor performance is typically caused by a lack of adequate funding, not corruption or incompetence. OSHA’s headcount has been reduced so much that its inspectors are rarely able to set foot in most workplaces. Airports have seen an increase in near-miss incidents recently due to chronic understaffing of the air traffic control system. The USDA’s Food Inspection Service has long faced staffing shortages.

These are not problems Musk and Ramaswamy set out to solve. Instead, their mission is to crack down on the federal bureaucracy. It’s unclear what, if anything, they will accomplish; many such committees have been convened in the past, but their efforts have had little success. But perhaps the key is to sow distrust in government ideals. When they talk about “waste and fraud,” remember the details of the institutions and programs they’re talking about. Can you really live without them?