Trump Official: We're Going To Cut The EPA In Half

[Mustang]

Winning

It was early in the morning, the heat burning off the fog, as I drove down a winding two lane road toward the river crossing. When I broke into the clearing before the bridge I noticed a majestic bald eagle gracefully catching the morning thermals as they rose off the rock banks of the river.

You know, when I was a kid I never saw a bald eagle. I lived where I could spend the afternoon walking along still remaining parts of Daniel Boone's path across the Blue Ridge mountains. The reason I mention that now is because one of the first actions of the EPA was the administration of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. It is that act, and that act alone, that is responsible for the saving of the Bald Eagle. Thanks to the EPA, my grandkids can grow up seeing Bald Eagles.

Maybe you have to pay attention. But in my younger days you could see the trees dying along the ridge line. It was not disease. It was not parasites. It was acid rain. Then Congress passed amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990, and emissions declined significantly. The forest have recovered, the streams are less acidic, and we all benefit.

I don't think people understand. The EPA works for US. It is the one safeguard we have against industries. Industries that very structure encourages them to "externalize" the cost of their activities. Weakening the EPA can't possibly be seen as a win for the American people.

Besides, that whole "Winning" meme didn't work out so well in the end the first time it made it's rounds. I don't think I would be recycling it now.

The problem is the EPA started abusing their power it needs to be reined in

The problem is all bureaucracies have.

They made a regulation against us truck drivers a few years ago. We are not allowed to talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using blue tooth. If you get caught, it's a $2,400 fine for the first offense; $10,000 to your company if they can prove you were talking to them. And both fines increase with the amount of violations.

Eliminate all bureaucracies in my opinion.

I have a bluetooth. Actually, I have 2. One is an aftermarket one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It cost me about $20. The other one fits in my ear. It cost me less than $40. It certainly makes driving safer, and I only drive a pickup. Now why any truck driver in an 18 wheeler carrying a load of 10s of 1,000s of lbs of cargo would want to risk taking one hand off the wheel to talk on a cell phone when there is a cheap alternative that is so much safer is beyond me. Frankly, it's nonsensical. However, life has shown me that people do stupid stuff all the time. Now, personally I wouldn't care one whit if a truck driver engaged in that kind of risk when the only one at risk was the driver of the truck. However, trucks share the road with other drivers, many of whom are parents with small children. It sounds like the risk of a heavy fine is a hell of a good incentive to not do something stupid which puts so many others at risk.

 

[Spare_change]

I'm so thankful Trump is doing that. But really - we should get rid of the entire EPA. And the Department of Education. And the National Endowments for the Arts. None of them are constitutional. In fact, if we got rid of all of the federal agencies that were unconstitutional, we could cut taxes in half and still have an annual surplus.

Jesus, yeah, lets push that out as if it has any semblance to objective reality.

Guess you missed the presser, huh? The National Endowment for the Arts and NPR have already been targeted for defunding. Cutting the EPA in half will hurt no one -- it is so bloated it can't stand up.

 

[Dr Grump]

No one but you Dems are doing that... We are talking about men and women who built this country, and yet they have been screwed over.....

Everybody has built your country...very few haven't...

 

[beagle9]

No one but you Dems are doing that... We are talking about men and women who built this country, and yet they have been screwed over.....

Everybody has built your country...very few haven't...

. Not the dead beats, and they ended up being in the hundreds of thousands over time. Then who was subsidizing all the illegals who were here, and working under the table while paying no taxes ?? The investigations need to go alot farther than just voter fraud in this country. Then the EPA became a political strong arm of the Democrats.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Winning

It was early in the morning, the heat burning off the fog, as I drove down a winding two lane road toward the river crossing. When I broke into the clearing before the bridge I noticed a majestic bald eagle gracefully catching the morning thermals as they rose off the rock banks of the river.

You know, when I was a kid I never saw a bald eagle. I lived where I could spend the afternoon walking along still remaining parts of Daniel Boone's path across the Blue Ridge mountains. The reason I mention that now is because one of the first actions of the EPA was the administration of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. It is that act, and that act alone, that is responsible for the saving of the Bald Eagle. Thanks to the EPA, my grandkids can grow up seeing Bald Eagles.

Maybe you have to pay attention. But in my younger days you could see the trees dying along the ridge line. It was not disease. It was not parasites. It was acid rain. Then Congress passed amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990, and emissions declined significantly. The forest have recovered, the streams are less acidic, and we all benefit.

I don't think people understand. The EPA works for US. It is the one safeguard we have against industries. Industries that very structure encourages them to "externalize" the cost of their activities. Weakening the EPA can't possibly be seen as a win for the American people.

Besides, that whole "Winning" meme didn't work out so well in the end the first time it made it's rounds. I don't think I would be recycling it now.

The problem is the EPA started abusing their power it needs to be reined in

The problem is all bureaucracies have.

They made a regulation against us truck drivers a few years ago. We are not allowed to talk on a cell phone while driving unless you are using blue tooth. If you get caught, it's a $2,400 fine for the first offense; $10,000 to your company if they can prove you were talking to them. And both fines increase with the amount of violations.

Eliminate all bureaucracies in my opinion.

I have a bluetooth. Actually, I have 2. One is an aftermarket one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It cost me about $20. The other one fits in my ear. It cost me less than $40. It certainly makes driving safer, and I only drive a pickup. Now why any truck driver in an 18 wheeler carrying a load of 10s of 1,000s of lbs of cargo would want to risk taking one hand off the wheel to talk on a cell phone when there is a cheap alternative that is so much safer is beyond me. Frankly, it's nonsensical. However, life has shown me that people do stupid stuff all the time. Now, personally I wouldn't care one whit if a truck driver engaged in that kind of risk when the only one at risk was the driver of the truck. However, trucks share the road with other drivers, many of whom are parents with small children. It sounds like the risk of a heavy fine is a hell of a good incentive to not do something stupid which puts so many others at risk.

The law forced my employer to buy new two-way phones that we can't even use unless you are sitting still. Bluetooth doesn't work with two way cell phones like Nextel used to have. So for a while, they just called us instead.

I've been doing this a very long time now, and I can tell you bluetooth is way more disruptive than just talking on the phone itself. You have to fiddle around to find those stupid buttons to answer or make a call, and that's way more distracting.

That's besides the fact we still use our CB radios all the time. When operating a vehicle like that, we have to shift gears, hit buttons like engine brakes, light interrupters, bright lights, use the clutch. We are doing things all the time to drive that vehicle. A stupid cell phone is not going to change anything.

Plus the fact there is much more background noise in a truck than a pickup truck, and in most cases, you can't communicate anyway.

If you want to make truck driving safer, don't worry about us, teach the idiots around us how to drive. There should be a law strictly enforced that states you can't cut in front of a truck less than five car lengths on the highway. These morons cut in front of me less than one car length and hit the brakes. They've even done this when coming to a stop on the highway like an accident.

Another law we need is no pacing a truck. If you want to pass me, fine, get in the next lane, pass, and continue that speed once you get back in front of me. Don't drive next to me because if I have to swerve out of that lane to avoid something in the road, I can't do that because the idiot next to me has been driving there for the last four miles. We also need a law that everybody has to use cruise control on the highway. So many times I get some idiot in a car going slow, and when I go to pass him, the clown speeds up and I can't move back over.

We should have laws against all these things, and heavy fines and points to boot. You could make the roads a lot safer by doing that instead of worrying about a driver using a cell phone.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Yes your mom is entitled to a raise. Case closed. No way of refuting this.

. Thanks... When we see so much corruption and waste, and my mom told me that her raise was only two dollars on her social security my heart sunk. She worked all her life, and she is living in poverty at 80 years old. She ask for nothing, and refuses help from me because of her independent pride in life. Our senior citizens, and hard working Americans ready to retire are being forgotten about or they are being screwed in a set up for which hopes they die before getting the proper retirement and treatment that they deserve after serving their nation proud and without waver. There should also be a way for people who decide like Trump did on his pay as president, to then donate their retirement to a benefactor of their choosing.

The problem is that SS was a false retirement plan. Everybody thought that SS would be enough for their future and it's not. If you don't have anything else to go along with SS, you're screwed when you retire.

. That's because the dam politicians couldn't keep their hands off of it, and then you see all this waste Trump is going after, and you think to yourself how bad the dammed corrupt system is. I hope Trump really means in every way what he's talking about on the lingo "The Forgotten Man or Woman" is forgotten no more. This should include the elderly as well.

That's part of the problem, but the other part is funding.

Look.......if we want to have these programs, then we need to pay for them. Simple as that. I can't remember the last time we had an increase in employee payroll deductions for medicare, yet healthcare gets more expensive every year.

So what Medicare and Medicaid do is only pay about 2/3 of the bill for their patients. The hospitals and doctors need to recoup that money, so they increase their fees. Those fees are paid for by the private sector, and our insurance rates go out of this world.

So like I said, if we want these things, we simply have to pay for them. But the reason politicians never increase those deductions is because people would revolt; maybe even ask for the elimination of SS and Medicare.

We want our elderly to be taken care of, but we don't want to pay for it out of our own pocket. It just doesn't work that way, and it's been going on for many years now. That's why retirees don't see any increases in their SS checks.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Winning

It was early in the morning, the heat burning off the fog, as I drove down a winding two lane road toward the river crossing. When I broke into the clearing before the bridge I noticed a majestic bald eagle gracefully catching the morning thermals as they rose off the rock banks of the river.

You know, when I was a kid I never saw a bald eagle. I lived where I could spend the afternoon walking along still remaining parts of Daniel Boone's path across the Blue Ridge mountains. The reason I mention that now is because one of the first actions of the EPA was the administration of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. It is that act, and that act alone, that is responsible for the saving of the Bald Eagle. Thanks to the EPA, my grandkids can grow up seeing Bald Eagles.

Maybe you have to pay attention. But in my younger days you could see the trees dying along the ridge line. It was not disease. It was not parasites. It was acid rain. Then Congress passed amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990, and emissions declined significantly. The forest have recovered, the streams are less acidic, and we all benefit.

I don't think people understand. The EPA works for US. It is the one safeguard we have against industries. Industries that very structure encourages them to "externalize" the cost of their activities. Weakening the EPA can't possibly be seen as a win for the American people.

Besides, that whole "Winning" meme didn't work out so well in the end the first time it made it's rounds. I don't think I would be recycling it now.

The important part of your reply is "Congress" are the people that passed the regulation--not the EPA.

I'm for ending all bureaucracies. Congress can do their jobs just fine, and we would have people to hold responsible in the event they create, laws, taxation or penalties against the general interest of the people. Bureaucracies are unconstitutional and need to be eliminated.

There has to be an enforcement mechanism.

Let the cops do it.

Which cops? Who is going to enforce clean air standards? Local cops? The sheriff? Highway patrol? Fish and game or have we gotten rid of them too?

That would be an unimaginable responsibility for a local, or even state, law enforcement agency. But at least we have grip on the real agenda here. Lack of enforcement, the real purpose of any cuts in funding. Why worry about going thru the process of changing the laws, especially since that would be in the eyes of the public. Better to do an end around the will of the people, which is reflected by existing legal regulations, and just refuse to enforce those regulations.

The United States Constitution gives only one entity the right to create laws, taxation and fines, and that is the US Congress.

They did so for a reason: so that we the citizen can redress any unfair measures against us.

Bureaucracies are lawless unelected people. They took over the job of creating laws, fines and taxes against the citizen, but we have no ability to resist.

Now if we want to have bureaucracies to enforce the laws that CONGRESS makes, I'm fine with that. Because if there is a law made against me that I feel unfair, then I can contact my representative to voice my objection.

So if you want to restrict bureaucracies to enforcement only, that's fine by me, but they don't need to be these over bloated agencies we have now.

 

[Norman]

No one but you Dems are doing that... We are talking about men and women who built this country, and yet they have been screwed over.....

Everybody has built your country...very few haven't...

Really now? At least one liberal has a very alternative view:

 

[imawhosure]

No one but you Dems are doing that... We are talking about men and women who built this country, and yet they have been screwed over.....

Everybody has built your country...very few haven't...

. Not the dead beats, and they ended up being in the hundreds of thousands over time. Then who was subsidizing all the illegals who were here, and working under the table while paying no taxes ?? The investigations need to go alot farther than just voter fraud in this country. Then the EPA became a political strong arm of the Democrats.

Yes your mom is entitled to a raise. Case closed. No way of refuting this.

. Thanks... When we see so much corruption and waste, and my mom told me that her raise was only two dollars on her social security my heart sunk. She worked all her life, and she is living in poverty at 80 years old. She ask for nothing, and refuses help from me because of her independent pride in life. Our senior citizens, and hard working Americans ready to retire are being forgotten about or they are being screwed in a set up for which hopes they die before getting the proper retirement and treatment that they deserve after serving their nation proud and without waver. There should also be a way for people who decide like Trump did on his pay as president, to then donate their retirement to a benefactor of their choosing.

The problem is that SS was a false retirement plan. Everybody thought that SS would be enough for their future and it's not. If you don't have anything else to go along with SS, you're screwed when you retire.

. That's because the dam politicians couldn't keep their hands off of it, and then you see all this waste Trump is going after, and you think to yourself how bad the dammed corrupt system is. I hope Trump really means in every way what he's talking about on the lingo "The Forgotten Man or Woman" is forgotten no more. This should include the elderly as well.

That's part of the problem, but the other part is funding.

Look.......if we want to have these programs, then we need to pay for them. Simple as that. I can't remember the last time we had an increase in employee payroll deductions for medicare, yet healthcare gets more expensive every year.

So what Medicare and Medicaid do is only pay about 2/3 of the bill for their patients. The hospitals and doctors need to recoup that money, so they increase their fees. Those fees are paid for by the private sector, and our insurance rates go out of this world.

So like I said, if we want these things, we simply have to pay for them. But the reason politicians never increase those deductions is because people would revolt; maybe even ask for the elimination of SS and Medicare.

We want our elderly to be taken care of, but we don't want to pay for it out of our own pocket. It just doesn't work that way, and it's been going on for many years now. That's why retirees don't see any increases in their SS checks.

The left can not do much of anything without these bloated agencies, which is why they are being cut. Even when the Democrats held power in congress, do we remember what happened with the immigration bill of about 6 or 7 years ago? How about when they were talking "carbon tax!" Do we remember what happened, and the reported massive millions of calls to Washington on both instances! (and in fact, for more reasons than that, but those are just 2 I can remember)

The left KNOWS it governs AGAINST the will of the most of the people, so it can't have its elected officials vote to do their dirty work, they need appointed people in bloated agencies to give them cover; ergo the EPA, NEA, DOL, HUD, and every alphabet soup bloated agency they can fill with leftists to take the blame when the left holds power, and to keep the agenda going when America gets pissed enough to throw them out!

People who voted for Trump insisted they did because of

1. The Supreme Court, and

2. They wanted to step up and save the country from socialism. A 3rd term of Obama would have been fatal for both 1, and 2!

The only way for number 2 to happen is..............shrink all these bloated agencies, and throw the leftists out on the street! Let them get a job in the private sector. If we want to bring our country back, we can NOT have them parked in Washington, working against those we elected, period!

P.S. Got to change my sig, but just to remind you--------> stay the hell out of California as much as you can. Don't give any DEPLORABLE tax dollars to the sate who will blatantly break the law, and has its rich like Hollyweird pushing them to do it. Starve their asses out, and work on a national campaign to announce, and do it! Even a 5% drop in tourism would be DEVASTATING to their bottom line. They want to smugly sit there and insult AMERICAN CITIZENS! Fine, lets stick it to them!

 

[Winston]

I'm so thankful Trump is doing that. But really - we should get rid of the entire EPA. And the Department of Education. And the National Endowments for the Arts. None of them are constitutional. In fact, if we got rid of all of the federal agencies that were unconstitutional, we could cut taxes in half and still have an annual surplus.

Jesus, yeah, lets push that out as if it has any semblance to objective reality.

Guess you missed the presser, huh? The National Endowment for the Arts and NPR have already been targeted for defunding. Cutting the EPA in half will hurt no one -- it is so bloated it can't stand up.

Would you support cutting the budget of the FBI? How about the Marshal Service? In fact, why don't we eliminate all federal funding for local law enforcement. No more grants to purchase military equipment to be used on the people. That would sure save some money.

Nope, I doubt you would support those cuts. And I am pretty sure you are a strong supporter of Trump's plans to expand the Border Patrol. In fact, I bet you are all about spending money on the enforcement of the law.

Except when it comes to the environment. And that is a little bothersome. The FBI, the Border Patrol, local cops--they all protect us from criminals. From rapists, murderers, robbers, sexual predators--mostly punk ass individuals that, even on their best day, with the best gun and the highest capacity magazine--might be able to take out a couple dozen of us.

WTF. Ain't you guys got guns? Why you so damn skeered? Hell, I ban guns from my house, they all stay at the family armory, and I ain't skeered. It would take a damn fool to come down in this holler and stir up some shit. In twenty years I can count the times I saw a member of law enforcement down here on one hand.

But the EPA, well they are cops too. But they don't protect us from the little punk ass bitches and their guns, they protect us from the dudes in the suits that are more than willing to dump toxic waste into our water supply, spew nauseous chemicals into our atmosphere, and strip off the tops of our mountains in pursuit of profit. And when those waste ponds burst and flood the valley, when our childhood asthma rates soar, and when cancer clusters pop up around industrial facilities, people don't die by the dozens, they die by the thousands.

Now, the EPA comes down in this holler too. They check the industrial pond not too far over the hill. They check the water, make sure my well is safe. You can defund all the local law enforcement you want, I can handle it. The punk ass bitches know better. But that factory over the hill, owned by some company out of Florida, could give two shits about my well. If nobody is keeping them in line you force me to make sure they don't have the opportunity to go out of line.

 

[imawhosure]

I'm so thankful Trump is doing that. But really - we should get rid of the entire EPA. And the Department of Education. And the National Endowments for the Arts. None of them are constitutional. In fact, if we got rid of all of the federal agencies that were unconstitutional, we could cut taxes in half and still have an annual surplus.

Jesus, yeah, lets push that out as if it has any semblance to objective reality.

Guess you missed the presser, huh? The National Endowment for the Arts and NPR have already been targeted for defunding. Cutting the EPA in half will hurt no one -- it is so bloated it can't stand up.

Would you support cutting the budget of the FBI? How about the Marshal Service? In fact, why don't we eliminate all federal funding for local law enforcement. No more grants to purchase military equipment to be used on the people. That would sure save some money.

Nope, I doubt you would support those cuts. And I am pretty sure you are a strong supporter of Trump's plans to expand the Border Patrol. In fact, I bet you are all about spending money on the enforcement of the law.

Except when it comes to the environment. And that is a little bothersome. The FBI, the Border Patrol, local cops--they all protect us from criminals. From rapists, murderers, robbers, sexual predators--mostly punk ass individuals that, even on their best day, with the best gun and the highest capacity magazine--might be able to take out a couple dozen of us.

WTF. Ain't you guys got guns? Why you so damn skeered? Hell, I ban guns from my house, they all stay at the family armory, and I ain't skeered. It would take a damn fool to come down in this holler and stir up some shit. In twenty years I can count the times I saw a member of law enforcement down here on one hand.

But the EPA, well they are cops too. But they don't protect us from the little punk ass bitches and their guns, they protect us from the dudes in the suits that are more than willing to dump toxic waste into our water supply, spew nauseous chemicals into our atmosphere, and strip off the tops of our mountains in pursuit of profit. And when those waste ponds burst and flood the valley, when our childhood asthma rates soar, and when cancer clusters pop up around industrial facilities, people don't die by the dozens, they die by the thousands.

Now, the EPA comes down in this holler too. They check the industrial pond not too far over the hill. They check the water, make sure my well is safe. You can defund all the local law enforcement you want, I can handle it. The punk ass bitches know better. But that factory over the hill, owned by some company out of Florida, could give two shits about my well. If nobody is keeping them in line you force me to make sure they don't have the opportunity to go out of line.

Phony debate point! Are you really that zealous, or are you misinformed?

Why don't you teach yourself 2 things---->

1. How many REGULATIONS the Obama administration passed in the last 4 years. 4 years ago, was your well being polluted?

2. Why don't you look up WHO is the group of people designated to pass regulations......and here is a hint.......it isn't any of the alphabet soup agencies! Once you know that, ask yourself why this has happened! Unless you are politically illiterate, even Helen Keller could figure it out!

 

[initforme]

All agencies need to be trimmed. Buh bye small business administration and other agencies like this. Then go after the military and slice the fat in there too. No agency, nothing is spared.

 

[initforme]

Just pay the border patrol agents minimum wage. Is the skill set needed that big?

 

[MordechaiGoodbud]

Couldn't happen to a nicer group of communist scumbags

Way past time. You watch, as the EPA is brought in line with reality, jobs will increase, money will flow and the Environment won't be any worse off.

The EPA is less about the environment than it is about crushing Capitalism. That's just the way it is

Via Daily Caller:

The former leader of President Donald Trump’s EPA transition team said Thursday he expects the president to slash the agency’s budget and staff.

Myron Ebell, the director of the Center for Energy at free market group Competitive Enterprise Institute, told reporters that Trump is considering reducing by magnitudes the agency’s workforce. It currently stands at 15,000 employees nationwide.

“Let’s aim for half and see how it works out, and then maybe we’ll want to go further,” Ebell said, referring to his wish to see the EPA slashed by at least half. He left Trump’s transition team last week, but was at one time on the president’s short list to head the agency.

Half of the EPA’s budget is transferred to state and local areas to update infrastructure projects and environmental cleanup efforts. Ebell, who is a long-time EPA critic and climate skeptic, said the cuts would likely fall on the remaining half of the agency’s budget, which supports a portion of federal employees.

“President Trump said during the campaign that he would like to abolish the EPA, or ‘leave a little bit,’” he said. “I think the administration is likely to start proposing cuts to the 15,000 staff, because the fact is that a huge amount of the work of the EPA is actually done by state agencies.”

Keep reading…

If environmental regulations are so bad, why is the unemployment rate just 4.7%?

I guess you want cancer because that is what is going to happen without environmental protections. More people are going to get slowly poisoned.

 

[Winston]

Yes your mom is entitled to a raise. Case closed. No way of refuting this.

. Thanks... When we see so much corruption and waste, and my mom told me that her raise was only two dollars on her social security my heart sunk. She worked all her life, and she is living in poverty at 80 years old. She ask for nothing, and refuses help from me because of her independent pride in life. Our senior citizens, and hard working Americans ready to retire are being forgotten about or they are being screwed in a set up for which hopes they die before getting the proper retirement and treatment that they deserve after serving their nation proud and without waver. There should also be a way for people who decide like Trump did on his pay as president, to then donate their retirement to a benefactor of their choosing.

The problem is that SS was a false retirement plan. Everybody thought that SS would be enough for their future and it's not. If you don't have anything else to go along with SS, you're screwed when you retire.

. That's because the dam politicians couldn't keep their hands off of it, and then you see all this waste Trump is going after, and you think to yourself how bad the dammed corrupt system is. I hope Trump really means in every way what he's talking about on the lingo "The Forgotten Man or Woman" is forgotten no more. This should include the elderly as well.

That's part of the problem, but the other part is funding.

Look.......if we want to have these programs, then we need to pay for them. Simple as that. I can't remember the last time we had an increase in employee payroll deductions for medicare, yet healthcare gets more expensive every year.

So what Medicare and Medicaid do is only pay about 2/3 of the bill for their patients. The hospitals and doctors need to recoup that money, so they increase their fees. Those fees are paid for by the private sector, and our insurance rates go out of this world.

So like I said, if we want these things, we simply have to pay for them. But the reason politicians never increase those deductions is because people would revolt; maybe even ask for the elimination of SS and Medicare.

We want our elderly to be taken care of, but we don't want to pay for it out of our own pocket. It just doesn't work that way, and it's been going on for many years now. That's why retirees don't see any increases in their SS checks.

Couple of corrections.

The Medicare "rate" has not changed since Ronald Reagan, who more than doubled the rate and began increasing the income subject to the tax. But there have been several increases in the tax. Most notably, the one attached to Obamacare. Furthermore, Medicare has been means tested since 2009, resulting in those with higher incomes paying higher premiums. Finally, anyone on Medicare will tell you the Medicare premium has increased substantially over the last twenty years.

Medicare pays about 80% of what private insurance pays, not two thirds. And doctors might grumble but they are more than willing to accept that lower rate because of VOLUME. Medicare patients utilize health care services at a much higher rate than the privately insured. Almost every hospital in the country gets at least half it's revenue from Medicare. Medicare paid more than 4,000 doctors over one million dollars in 2014.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I'm so thankful Trump is doing that. But really - we should get rid of the entire EPA. And the Department of Education. And the National Endowments for the Arts. None of them are constitutional. In fact, if we got rid of all of the federal agencies that were unconstitutional, we could cut taxes in half and still have an annual surplus.

Jesus, yeah, lets push that out as if it has any semblance to objective reality.

Guess you missed the presser, huh? The National Endowment for the Arts and NPR have already been targeted for defunding. Cutting the EPA in half will hurt no one -- it is so bloated it can't stand up.

Would you support cutting the budget of the FBI? How about the Marshal Service? In fact, why don't we eliminate all federal funding for local law enforcement. No more grants to purchase military equipment to be used on the people. That would sure save some money.

Nope, I doubt you would support those cuts. And I am pretty sure you are a strong supporter of Trump's plans to expand the Border Patrol. In fact, I bet you are all about spending money on the enforcement of the law.

Except when it comes to the environment. And that is a little bothersome. The FBI, the Border Patrol, local cops--they all protect us from criminals. From rapists, murderers, robbers, sexual predators--mostly punk ass individuals that, even on their best day, with the best gun and the highest capacity magazine--might be able to take out a couple dozen of us.

WTF. Ain't you guys got guns? Why you so damn skeered? Hell, I ban guns from my house, they all stay at the family armory, and I ain't skeered. It would take a damn fool to come down in this holler and stir up some shit. In twenty years I can count the times I saw a member of law enforcement down here on one hand.

But the EPA, well they are cops too. But they don't protect us from the little punk ass bitches and their guns, they protect us from the dudes in the suits that are more than willing to dump toxic waste into our water supply, spew nauseous chemicals into our atmosphere, and strip off the tops of our mountains in pursuit of profit. And when those waste ponds burst and flood the valley, when our childhood asthma rates soar, and when cancer clusters pop up around industrial facilities, people don't die by the dozens, they die by the thousands.

Now, the EPA comes down in this holler too. They check the industrial pond not too far over the hill. They check the water, make sure my well is safe. You can defund all the local law enforcement you want, I can handle it. The punk ass bitches know better. But that factory over the hill, owned by some company out of Florida, could give two shits about my well. If nobody is keeping them in line you force me to make sure they don't have the opportunity to go out of line.

Your analogy is flawed. The Constitution charges our representatives with the duty to protect citizens here and abroad. The FBI, CIA, Border Patrol don't create laws against us, they only enforce the ones we have set forth by our law makers.

It's a balancing act really. The cleaner the air and water, the more economic damage we suffer. The less damage we suffer economically, the worse for air and water. You can't have both a good economy and stringent environmental regulations.

 

[P@triot]

But that factory over the hill, owned by some company out of Florida, could give two shits about my well. If nobody is keeping them in line you force me to make sure they don't have the opportunity to go out of line.

Why are you so skeered? You sound like a "punk-ass bitch". If the big skeery bad man CEO ruins your well, just buy bottled water. Problem solved.

 

[Timmy]

I'm so thankful Trump is doing that. But really - we should get rid of the entire EPA. And the Department of Education. And the National Endowments for the Arts. None of them are constitutional. In fact, if we got rid of all of the federal agencies that were unconstitutional, we could cut taxes in half and still have an annual surplus.

How are they unconstitutional ?

You rubes won't admit that since the birth of the Epa we have been able to turn back the pollution that we had. everywhere? You want to just throw the baby out with the bath water ?

 

[P@triot]

But the EPA, well they are cops too. But they don't protect us from the little punk ass bitches and their guns, they protect us from the dudes in the suits that are more than willing to dump toxic waste into our water supply, spew nauseous chemicals into our atmosphere, and strip off the tops of our mountains in pursuit of profit.

Is there anything more adorable than naïve little progressives who actually believe the government is there to "protect" them?



Oh my dear gentle little snowflake...the EPA could care less if you die of cancer tomorrow. The EPA is what government is always about - power and control.

 

[P@triot]

I'm so thankful Trump is doing that. But really - we should get rid of the entire EPA. And the Department of Education. And the National Endowments for the Arts. None of them are constitutional. In fact, if we got rid of all of the federal agencies that were unconstitutional, we could cut taxes in half and still have an annual surplus.

How are they unconstitutional ?

The U.S. Constitution explicitly restricts the federal government to 18 enumerated powers and the environment is not one of them.