*'s Sunset Commission "could terminate any federal agency he dislikes"

[Shallah Kali]

Bush's Most Radical Plan Yet
WIth a vote of hand-picked lobbyists, the president could terminate any federal agency he dislikes
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7265052?&rnd=1114251617470&has-player=true&version=6.0.8.1024


The proposal, spelled out in three short sentences, would give the president the power to appoint an eight-member panel called the "Sunset Commission," which would systematically review federal programs every ten years and decide whether they should be eliminated. Any programs that are not "producing results," in the eyes of the commission, would "automatically terminate unless the Congress took action to continue them."

{SNIP}

In practice, however, the commission would enable the Bush administration to achieve what Ronald Reagan only dreamed of: the end of government regulation as we know it. With a simple vote of five commissioners -- many of them likely to be lobbyists and executives from major corporations currently subject to federal oversight -- the president could terminate any program or agency he dislikes. No more Environmental Protection Agency. No more Food and Drug Administration. No more Securities and Exchange Commission.

{SNIP}

The Sunset Commission would go even further. The panel -- which will likely be composed of "experts in management issues," according to one senior OMB official -- will enable the administration to terminate entire government programs that protect citizens against injury and death. Consider what America might look like if Reagan had wielded such an anti-regulatory ax twenty years ago. Abolishing the EPA would have increased air pollution, causing tens of thousands of children to develop chronic respiratory diseases. Terminating the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would have eliminated many protections we now take for granted -- including air bags, child safety seats and automatic seat belts. And getting rid of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would have forestalled workplace regulations that have prevented illnesses among millions of farmworkers.

Even if such regulations remain on the books, eliminating entire agencies would leave no one to enforce them. "And if there's no cop on the beat, who's going to follow the law?" says J. Robert Shull, senior policy analyst at OMB Watch.

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Please read the entire article. This is very scary and very serious. :scared:

[Terre]

1. Hi Shallah

Try this thread already started:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1741167

and this one over at dKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/23/21115/5213

and you're right, IT IS SCARY!