Regulations? We don't need no stinkin' regulations!

There has been quite a fuss following the recent news about Bush's decision to relax pollution standards. From an article in the New York Times:

The Bush administration today announced the most sweeping move in a decade to loosen industrial air pollution rules. The administration said the changes would encourage plant improvements that would clean the air.

But nobody should be surprised by the action. Consider this statement made by Bush while he was campaigning for president:

The best way to achieve clean air and water was "to not try to sue our way or regulate our way to clean air and clean water."  Nov 1999

Which is exactly what law-breakers (or potential law-breakers) would advocate. Perhaps the same "don't sue and don't regulate" approach could be applied to fraudulent Wall Street analysts, manufacturers of unsafe consumer goods, purveyors of bacteria-laden food, and peddlers of insufficiently tested medicines.

posted by Quiddity at 11/24/2002 07:38:00 AM