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GOP chisel funds from laws it can't repeal
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/reich/article/GOP-chisel-funds-from-laws-it-can-t-repeal-4506271.php
"The chemical and fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, where at least 14 were killed and more than 200 injured a few weeks ago hadn't been fully inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1985. (A partial inspection by a different agency in 2011 resulted in $5,250 in fines.)
OSHA and its state partners have a total of 2,200 inspectors charged with ensuring the safety of more than 8 million workplaces employing 130 million workers. That comes to abut 1 inspector for every 59,000 American workers.
There's no way it can do its job with so few resources, but OSHA has been systematically hollowed out for years under Republican administrations and Congresses that have despised the agency since its inception. In effect, many of our nation's worker-safety laws and rules have been quietly repealed because there aren't enough inspectors to enforce them.
That's been the Republican strategy in general: When they can't directly repeal laws they don't like, they repeal them indirectly by hollowing them out - denying funds to fully implement them and reducing funds to enforce them.
Consider taxes. Republicans have been unable to round up enough votes to cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy as much as they'd like, so what do they do? They're hollowing out the IRS. As they cut its enforcement budget - presto! - tax collections decline.
Despite an increasing number of billionaires and multimillionaires using every tax dodge imaginable - laundering their money through phantom corporations and tax havens (remember Mitt Romney's tax returns?) - the IRS budget has been cut by 17 percent since 2002, adjusted for inflation.
To manage the $594.5 million in additional cuts required by the sequester, the agency has announced it will furlough each of its more than 89,000 employees for at least five days this year.
This budget stinginess doesn't save the government money. Quite the opposite. Less IRS enforcement means less revenue. It's been estimated that every dollar invested in the IRS' enforcement, modernization, and management system reduces the federal budget deficit by $200 and that furloughing 1,800 IRS "police" will cost the treasury $4.5 billion in lost revenue.
But congressional Republicans aren't interested in more revenue. Their goal is to cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy......"
"The chemical and fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, where at least 14 were killed and more than 200 injured a few weeks ago hadn't been fully inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1985. (A partial inspection by a different agency in 2011 resulted in $5,250 in fines.)
OSHA and its state partners have a total of 2,200 inspectors charged with ensuring the safety of more than 8 million workplaces employing 130 million workers. That comes to abut 1 inspector for every 59,000 American workers.
There's no way it can do its job with so few resources, but OSHA has been systematically hollowed out for years under Republican administrations and Congresses that have despised the agency since its inception. In effect, many of our nation's worker-safety laws and rules have been quietly repealed because there aren't enough inspectors to enforce them.
That's been the Republican strategy in general: When they can't directly repeal laws they don't like, they repeal them indirectly by hollowing them out - denying funds to fully implement them and reducing funds to enforce them.
Consider taxes. Republicans have been unable to round up enough votes to cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy as much as they'd like, so what do they do? They're hollowing out the IRS. As they cut its enforcement budget - presto! - tax collections decline.
Despite an increasing number of billionaires and multimillionaires using every tax dodge imaginable - laundering their money through phantom corporations and tax havens (remember Mitt Romney's tax returns?) - the IRS budget has been cut by 17 percent since 2002, adjusted for inflation.
To manage the $594.5 million in additional cuts required by the sequester, the agency has announced it will furlough each of its more than 89,000 employees for at least five days this year.
This budget stinginess doesn't save the government money. Quite the opposite. Less IRS enforcement means less revenue. It's been estimated that every dollar invested in the IRS' enforcement, modernization, and management system reduces the federal budget deficit by $200 and that furloughing 1,800 IRS "police" will cost the treasury $4.5 billion in lost revenue.
But congressional Republicans aren't interested in more revenue. Their goal is to cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy......"
They threatened to defund obamacare as well, but a poll taken says three quarters of the citizens say no, not a good idea, even tho they may not like it or are uneducated about it. The NLB is still waiting on confirmations. In fact they are down to one and that one is due to retire soon. They refuse to confirm so that when the last one retires, there will cease to be a NLB. The dumbing down of america with all the distractions and the like is in the forefront while this kind of activity is behind the scenes of the public and the media does a **** poor job of covering.
Just a heads up, all of the union people I know hate OSHA.
That's been the Republican strategy in general: When they can't directly repeal laws they don't like, they repeal them indirectly by hollowing them out - denying funds to fully implement them and reducing funds to enforce them.
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I hope the explosion and tragic outcome of that explosion will motivate them to hire enough people to do a proper job. It will cost us less in the end.
"Consider taxes. Republicans have been unable to round up enough votes to cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy as much as they'd like, so what do they do?
They're hollowing out the IRS. As they cut its enforcement budget - presto! - tax collections decline."
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I am wondering if that may be one of the reasons a commissioner has not yet been appointed for the IRS.
Desrt- Thank you so much for this information.
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