Make the government incapable of protecting the little guy

I’ve written in the 13 years of this blog that I see a major purpose of government is to protect the little guy from the big guy, to protect the vulnerable from the oppressor. An example is a post from March 2917 when I listed all the departments of the federal government and showed which ones are there to help the little guy. An example is the Department of Labor, which is to help the worker against the corporation. That means a goal of the big guy is to make the government incapable of protecting the little guy. That’s what the endless call by conservatives to get rid of what they call onerous regulations is all about. Regulations are a key part of what protects the little guy. Conservatives like to say that reducing regulations will help business grow, though one should ask grow for whom. The owner and shareholders (the Walton family, owners of Wal-mart are billionaires)? Or the workers (who get paid so little they qualify for food and housing assistance)? Mark Sumner of Daily Kos explains a bit of how regulations get made. In his example suppose Congress passes a law that says “greenhouse gas emissions have to be kept at the level of 1980.” It would be up to the Environmental Protection Agency to define greenhouse gases, how much of each is dangerous, how each gas is to be reduced, and how testing is to be done. The things the EPA scientist come up with to do all that are the regulations. Another example is the Affordable Care Act. When passed by Congress the ACA was 974 pages long. Four years later there were about 20,000 pages of regulations that put the ACA into practical terms. A third example is the Food and Drug Administration. It had broad powers and the scientific expertise to determine if a new drug really does what its makers say it does and there are no big side effects, whether it is effective and safe. But there is a nondelegation doctrine known in constitutional legal circles. It means that Congress cannot delegate its authority to anyone else. Congress cannot say to the EPA here’s the law, you figure out how to make it happen. The nondelegation doctrine was last used in 1935. Many Supreme Court rulings in the 85 years since then have refuted it, and for good reason. Allowing Congress to delegate to agencies allows our modern government to exist. You’ve probably guessed by now that I, and Mark Sumner, wouldn’t be writing about such an obscure topic unless there is something newsworthy about it. And that’s correct. A majority of justices of the Supreme Court have said they should revive the nondelegation doctrine and had expressed the wish that someone would send them a case so they could do exactly that. Wrote Sumner:

What case could trigger a flip which would turn the Biden administration from an opportunity to move the nation forward, into a mad scramble to prevent a tumble into the abyss? Try almost any. A challenge to any regulation, by any agency, might give the back-to-the-1930s crowd an opportunity to sign their names on a decision that guts everything from Fair Housing to the Clean Air Act in one go. If it was difficult to pass the ACA at 974 pages, imagine the difficulty, the compromises, and the failings that would occur if the legislation itself had to clock in at 21,000 pages in an effort to do the job of regulatory agencies. And even then, the results might last a day before insurance agencies and healthcare providers took advantage of a nuance of language to simply leave the legislation behind. By fixing regulations in the language of the original legislation, rather than allowing agencies to adapt them to changing conditions, many would be made moot or impractical.

Also imagine that for what the FDA and EPA do Congress would need to be made up of scientists, not politicians. Justice Elena Kagan made it clear that using the nondelegation doctrine would make most of government unconstitutional. Reviving this doctrine would both kill all current regulations and make further legislation impossible. Want a smaller government – a government that is incapable of protecting the little guy from the big guy, plus unable to do everything else our government does like maintain national parks – this is a quick way to do it. Conservatives, especially those on the Court, are delighted with the prospect. A way out of this is to expand the court. Quickly. Remember back to September 11, 2001 in which terrorists cost the lives of 2,977 people. That galvanized and united the nation, changed the shape of government, and prompted us to enter two wars (we’re still in Afghanistan). Sumner noted CNN reported Wednesday’s death toll was 3,157 – higher than the dead of 9/11. And we’re likely to see daily death counts at that level and higher for a while now. A 9/11 every day. I think we’ve passed the 9/11 death toll 90 times (Sumner says ten, but that would be only 2,900 dead, not over 278,000 dead). And instead of uniting us, each death is dividing us. Colleen Wilson, a doctoral student in child development, tweeted in response to the death count:

I’ve studied pandemics, as an amateur, since I was 17. I’ve been heavily invested and informed in politics since I was 13. Nothing about how we got here surprises me. Except the fact that we haven’t had a single public memorial for the 250k Americans we lost.

Brittani Moneé James, a black feminist physician, tweeted a thread about getting black people to accept being vaccinated. Some of what she wrote:

Black people’s mistrust in Medicine and Public Health is well-deserved and completely rational based on what you all have done to us, and continue to do to us. Let me say clearly: I will 100% get the vaccine. I believe in it. I trust it. But when my Black patients balk at the idea, I won’t judge them. Because I intimately I understand their fear. Listen. Even I’m a physician myself, and even I don’t trust ya’ll. Being a doctor has made me LESS trusting of the Medical Institution as a whole, not more. I KNOW Medicine is deeply racist. It is another American institution, like so many others, that mistreats & ultimately kills Black people. Over and over. With impunity. This is not a theory...I live it. As both patient & provider. … First, we need to admit that white people and the government have little to no credibility in the average Black person’s eyes. That’s not a debate. That’s a forgone conclusion. What’s more, there is not enough time to correct that perception before this vaccine comes live. … If health systems, the government and providers *really* want Black people to take this vaccine, you all better start passing the mic and passing the power to act to Black and brown people. And fast. And not just wealthy Black people, Black academics and other Black “elites” Give the mic and give MONEY to Black people on the ground. Give it to grassroots organizers. Give it to Black church leaders. Give it to the people who live, work and love in Black communities. Listen to them. Follow them. Protect them. Support them. Uplift them. Pay them. Then let them work. They lead. You don’t.

Ana Mardoll, whose Twitter description includes “A Boy Named Ana,” tweeted about how bad Speaker Nancy Pelosi is at public relations. He gives a few examples of other people, like AOC, who do a much better job of messaging that Pelosi does. Her PR skills are so bad that …

Honestly, at this point I just want Adam Schiff to tackle Nancy at a press conference and fling the microphone to AOC while the umpires throw little yellow flags all over the place.

Andrea Junker tweeted:

* Wealth of Jeff Bezos 2009: $6.8 billion 2020: $184 billion * Wealth of Mark Zuckerberg 2009: $2 billion 2020: $103 billion * U.S. Minimum Wage 2009: $7.25 2020: $7.25 It’s about damn time for an economy that works for all of us, not the 1%.

Joan McCarter of Kos reported the vice nasty guy is doing all he can to fade into the woodwork. He wants to maintain a favorable reputation after the nasty guy ship sinks (too late for that). The VNG no longer appears in fundraising solicitations (partly, I’m sure, because the money seems to be going straight into the nasty guy’s pockets). His name is no longer in campaign logos. The VNG trying to smooth things over as the nasty guy attacks GOP governors whose states didn’t go to him, such as Brian Kemp of Georgia. But the nasty guy hears from someone else and tweets again. Wrote McCarter:

If Pence had a spine, or an ounce of real concern for the country and constitution he swore an oath to, he'd go public. He would stand up to Trump and say it's time to end this farce for the good of the nation. Instead, he's just fading into the background so that he doesn't wreck his political future, just in case Trump manages to keep the party his.

Dartagnan of the Kos community has been amused at the GOP outrage over Joe Biden’s picks for his cabinet:

Considering the corrupt personages that Republicans have advanced to Donald Trump’s Cabinet over the last four years, these objections have to be a joke, right? Let’s just spell this out: Republicans have no credibility, moral authority, or any other legitimate justification to object to anyone nominated to Biden’s proposed Cabinet. None. Nada. Zilch. And anyone who they fail to confirm—for any reason short of wanton lewdness or an undisclosed, serious criminal offense—should be afforded “acting” status by President-elect Biden.

Dartagnan lists some of the people the nasty guy convinced the GOP senators to approve for his cabinet to dismantle the departments they were put in charge of. The list includes Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development, Scott Pruitt at the EPA, Betsy DeVos at Education, William Barr at Justice, Mike Pompeo at State, Ryan Zinke at Interior, and Wilbur Ross at Commerce.

One fact that this incoming administration needs to internalize and remember is that the entire GOP thought process is predicated on the assumption that all Democratic governance is illegitimate, that Biden’s election as president, though temporarily inconvenient to them, is in their eyes just a brief interruption of the rightful entitlement of Republicans to run the Executive Branch. And they will treat Biden like that. They will treat Biden exactly how they treated President Barack Obama: with no respect. On legislation, on judges, or on Cabinet officials. Hell, even if they wanted to cooperate, they’ll be too scared of Trump’s Twitter finger. They only understand one thing—power, when it’s in their face. They don’t care about the country, they’ve already proved that in spades, and they certainly don’t care about Biden. They will push the limits of their power until they can’t possibly take it any further. Some people might object that the repeated installment of “acting” heads of agencies may threaten the legitimacy of some their executive functions. But allowing the GOP to effectively insert itself into the executive branch by essentially holding it hostage and only ever confirming Cabinet nominees it fully “approves” of is worse. It’s a fundamental usurpation of power that runs contrary to the intent of the Constitution. It's just a variation, writ large, of what they've already done with judicial nominations, and it cannot stand. If the Supreme Court is forced to weigh in on that basic concept, so be it. But this administration shouldn't start out in a position of weakness by catering to Republican abuse of power. So do yourself a big favor, President-elect Biden. Hire who you want, and stick with them.