Trump’s Attacks On Science And Regulation Amount To Murder
Sorry, I couldn’t think of an appropriately outrageously inflammatory headline to adequately capture the vile nature of this quote I just read by Mick Mulvaney, acting Trump White House chief of staff, which I feel compelled to share.
Check this out: (read the whole article)
“You’ve heard about ‘drain the swamp.’ What you probably haven’t heard is what we are actually doing,” he said. “I don’t know if you saw the news the other day, but the USDA just tried to move, or did move, two offices out of Washington, D.C…. Guess what happened? More than half the people quit…. What a wonderful way to sort of streamline government, and do what we haven’t been able to do for a long time.”
I lack words to describe the depravity of people who would openly brag about relocating a government office as a tactic of dismantling science and essential government protections of public health and the environment.
The facts of the matter include this:
Today’s EPA offers a stark example of the Trump administration’s crusade to dismantle science-based agencies. Nearly 1,600 employees left the EPA during the first year and a half of the EPA administration, while only 400 were hired, according to data obtained by The Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request. Of 1,600 employees who left, at least 260 were scientists, 185 were “environmental protection specialists” and 106 were engineers. The total number of employees at the agency today — 14,172 — is the lowest in 30 years.
And this:
The EPA is not the only agency pushing scientists out the door. The same day the EPA made its chlorpyrifos announcement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that nearly two-thirds of 395 Washington, D.C.-based employees in its Economic Research Service, which provides analyses on a range of issues, and National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which oversees $1.7 billion in scientific funding, will quit rather than relocate to Kansas City.
I’m not an ag guy, so I was not familiar with the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. But check out their mission and the crucial role they play in things like food safety, nutrition, and natural resource protection.
On top of this across the board attack on science and scientists, Trump is slashing regulatory agency budgets, rolling back regulatory protections, installing corporate lobbyists and lawyers to head regulatory agencies, stacking science advisory boards with industry hacks, privatizing and outsourcing government responsibilities, et cetera.
Boeing plane crashes are just the visible tip of a very large iceberg (I know, that’s a horrible metaphor in a time of climate chaos).
Make no mistake about it, many people are dying as a result of Trump’s systematic dismantling of government and science. It’s just hard to see the body count.
How is that any different than the mass murders we are seeing on an accelerating basis?