Many of the Government Agencies Tasked with Protecting the Public Welfare are Failing

[cali]

From OSHA to the FDA the EP, the SEC and the FEC.

Why?

Cuts, to be sure, but a shifting of priorities, the weakening of unions and the influence of corporate interests are the major reasons. Sadly, few are paying any attention to this at all.

Let's just look at OSHA. OSHA fines for serious employer safety infractions are now a joke and that makes enforcement a joke.

Here are just a couple of recent cases:

June 4, 2015

Federal labor officials are recommending a railcar company be fined $46,900 after it was found to have committed nearly a dozen serious safety violations in a December 2014 explosion that seriously injured two employees.

About 2 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2014, a railcar at GBW Railcar Services LLC was being prepared for cleaning when an electric heater ignited flammable gas vapors, according to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The explosion occurred in the unincorporated community of Cummings, near Atchison, about 40 miles northeast of Topeka.

Two workers underwent weeks of skin graft surgery and physical therapy to recover from second-degree burns, according to OSHA. Seven other workers were treated for injuries suffered in the blast.

<snip>

http://cjonline.com/news/2015-06-04/osha-finds-11-violations-seeks-46900-fines-railcar-company-explosion-near-atchison


OSHA fines Halliburton $7K in fracking site blast that killed 1 worker, injured 2 in Weld County

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/osha-fines-halliburton-7k-in-fracking-site-blast-that-killed-1-worker-injured-2-in-weld-county

Those parts of our government that protect workers and the public welfare are being dismantled. Hell, they're a long way down that path. They exist in name but not in effective function.

And yes, this is vitally important shit.

[Jefferson23]

1. Framed this way, our obstacles feel so very overwhelming. If Sanders can continue to

bring a voice to the importance of these protections, maybe we'll have a chance for
progress.


K&R

[cali]

4. sorry, that wasn't my intent.

I was just trying to focus attention on the issue.

[Jefferson23]

6. What I meant is, you can't frame it in a positive light, not that you intended to do so.

You have been a stalwart for the greater good, no question there.

I feel that we have a shot at disrupting that false narrative that we're not
in trouble and one reason among many that I support Sanders.

[hobbit709]

2. That's the corporatist plan

[raouldukelives]

3. What investors want, investors get. nt

[jwirr]

10. Who are these investors? Years ago we used to think that stockholders were just a lot of normal

people who were part of the company. I remember being sent a letter by an insurance company that covered something we had. They wanted us to sign a proxy so they could vote for us. I haven't seen one of those letters for decades.

This cannot be what is going on today. These investors are not interested in our good. They are working on the bottom line for the rich. And we do not even know who they are. We cannot hold them accountable. They hide behind their corporations so that they do not have to personally answer for what they are doing.

How do we deal with this?

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. Our government agencies are a revolving door flooded with corporate lobbyists, lawyers, and

bean counters. Look who is in charge of our so called "free trade" legislation.

[hootinholler]

7. IT's by design

So the regulatory agencies can be eliminated or at least outsourced.

[pampango]

8. Thanks, cali. I'm sure the budgets for these agencies are under attack by budget hawks.

Not so much because they value the budget savings but because they hate government and want to cut budgets - except for defense and security - particularly in regulatory agencies that are not the friends of the GOP's friends and supporters.

Leaving the regulatory and protective agencies in existence but without the budget to do what they are designed to do is the best of both worlds for business. The appearance of caring without the substance.

[cali]

9. you hit the nail thaton the head when you said

that leaving these agencies as little more than shells, is the best of both worlds for business.

[Rex]

11. Republicans hate our system and want to destroy it, without actually thinking it out

and realizing it means the destruction of us all.