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

[Ray From Cleveland]

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.

. There needs to be a mandatory class that all new license seekers should have to take as pertaining to big trucks. A simulator should also be part of the class. If you can't pass the class you don't get your license. These things you speak of are very important.

LOL, would you like to try and take the test for a CDL Class A license?

If you can pass that test, then you're perfectly qualified to drive. Driving isn't about class time, driving is about experience. I don't care if you take a six month class to drive a truck, it's something you actually have to do to get good at.

In my company, my boss got sick of trying to find Class A drivers, so now he's promoting from within. He offers our straight truck drivers the opportunity to upgrade to drive tractor--trailer. So far it's working pretty well. But even though they drive straight trucks now, they have to take the test all over again for tractor-trailer. Everyone of them failed the first time and had to go back to get tested again. One guy that did it is a very good tractor-trailer driver given his experience, and even he failed the first time.

The real problem we have today are foreigners. Some of them can't speak or read English. I have no idea how they find places or get around. They are terrible drivers to boot. Every couple of months, some foreigner runs up to me and says "Mister, mister! Please back in trailer for me, I don't know how!" I have no idea how these people get a license to drive in this country. I suspect we honor CDL"s from Mexico or Canada, and they are driving on our roads today.

 

[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.

Well I know me, and if I knew that the money would go to the programs talked about, I would kick in the money needed to make the system great for all of our seniors, and I would hope that millions more would think the same. People are willing, but they are unsure about the corruption, so yes they probably would revolt if not assured correctly.

I would too. After all, I'm getting near that retirement age, and both my parents have been retired the last few decades.

 

[nat4900]

The EPA is needed. However, it is not needed to the extent that you stupid Moon Bats think it is.

Sure, because slow poisoning is less obvious than a shot through the temple....Let future administrations worry about the mess left behind.....Trump's ego MUST be constantly inflated.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

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.

The con allows the creation of laws and that means creation of agencies .

We've had a Great economy along with protecting the environment. It's not a zero sum game . And in a lot of places the environment is the economy .

Sure, we had a great economy when the EPA first game out, but that was because they didn't have many regulations.

Today is a whole different story. I work for a small transportation company that has less than a dozen employees, the new regulations that came out over the last ten years costs my employer hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

So your company isn't entrepreneurish enough to survive, adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing environment without threatening the environment. Or they just see more of a bottom line profit margin in not having any regulations. You know, more like Wall Street. Does your employer provide helathcare plans to employees?

He used to, but can't afford that now.

Our company is doing fine. We have to pass on our losses to our customers in rate hikes. They produce the products we buy in the store every day. We consumers eventually pay those environmental costs. But in effort for companies to compensate, they keep wages lower and then you on the left complain about that as well. When business have had enough expensive regulations, they move out of country and once again, you on the left complain about jobs moving overseas.

You people want to blame everybody else for the problems America faces except yourselves. Blame the rich guy, blame Walmart and McDonald's, blame the investors and their thirst for good financial investments, but never blame anybody on the left. They never do anything wrong. They never cause any of our problems.

Well why don't we blame "the left" for your lack of employer provided healthcare then. You seem to have no problem blaming "the left" for everything, no problem at all.

Your society runs on guilt, sin, and blame, which is perfect for a population of people who have no intention of ever taking any responsibility for anything at all. That’s what blame is for, to avoid responsibility. “The left” blames “the right”, “the right” blames “the left”, and your elites continue to economically sodomize and cannibalize society while the unsubstantial people are all occupied with sneering at one another, over “issues” they’ve “learned” to focus on from their televisions.

Yes, I will blame the left when blame is fitting, but not some kook conspiracy theory like the left comes up with.

I seen companies move out of state or country. I've talked with those owners who were moving by no choice of their own. The two biggest culprits for them moving were costly regulations and unions. If not for those two things, many of those companies would have stayed. But they can't compete in the world market today with those costs.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

We have a truck driving hauler company about 40 miles away. Always have adds in the paper looking for workers or drivers. They must be a very bad place to work as they can't find workers.

No, all trucking companies can't find drivers. In fact, we are going to need another 60,000 this year.

The problem is you can't get Americans to work today. The ones that are willing to work smoke pot and can't pass a drug tests. Smoking pot became more important than securing a career or job. So they get their Obama phone, their SNAP's cards, their free Obama Care, and sit back and watch life go by.

 

[Fenton Lum]

The con allows the creation of laws and that means creation of agencies .

We've had a Great economy along with protecting the environment. It's not a zero sum game . And in a lot of places the environment is the economy .

Sure, we had a great economy when the EPA first game out, but that was because they didn't have many regulations.

Today is a whole different story. I work for a small transportation company that has less than a dozen employees, the new regulations that came out over the last ten years costs my employer hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

So your company isn't entrepreneurish enough to survive, adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing environment without threatening the environment. Or they just see more of a bottom line profit margin in not having any regulations. You know, more like Wall Street. Does your employer provide helathcare plans to employees?

He used to, but can't afford that now.

Our company is doing fine. We have to pass on our losses to our customers in rate hikes. They produce the products we buy in the store every day. We consumers eventually pay those environmental costs. But in effort for companies to compensate, they keep wages lower and then you on the left complain about that as well. When business have had enough expensive regulations, they move out of country and once again, you on the left complain about jobs moving overseas.

You people want to blame everybody else for the problems America faces except yourselves. Blame the rich guy, blame Walmart and McDonald's, blame the investors and their thirst for good financial investments, but never blame anybody on the left. They never do anything wrong. They never cause any of our problems.

Well why don't we blame "the left" for your lack of employer provided healthcare then. You seem to have no problem blaming "the left" for everything, no problem at all.

Your society runs on guilt, sin, and blame, which is perfect for a population of people who have no intention of ever taking any responsibility for anything at all. That’s what blame is for, to avoid responsibility. “The left” blames “the right”, “the right” blames “the left”, and your elites continue to economically sodomize and cannibalize society while the unsubstantial people are all occupied with sneering at one another, over “issues” they’ve “learned” to focus on from their televisions.

Yes, I will blame the left when blame is fitting, but not some kook conspiracy theory like the left comes up with.

I seen companies move out of state or country. I've talked with those owners who were moving by no choice of their own. The two biggest culprits for them moving were costly regulations and unions. If not for those two things, many of those companies would have stayed. But they can't compete in the world market today with those costs.

Pffffffffffffffffffft, look, we've all been indoctrinated to the Wall Street propaganda, spare me. It's bullshit, blame whoever you like, the entire thing looks utterly bipartisan to me, and the societal trajectory is a half century on now; there has indeed been a vast redistribution of societal wealth.

Privatized gains versus socialized losses for the Wall Street bankster class
Internalized profit versus externalized risk and expense for the “job creator” class
Socialism for the aristocracy versus laissez-faire capitalism for the masses

 

[owebo]

The EPA is needed. However, it is not needed to the extent that you stupid Moon Bats think it is.

Sure, because slow poisoning is less obvious than a shot through the temple....Let future administrations worry about the mess left behind.....Trump's ego MUST be constantly inflated.

Do you have bumps in your temples where they went in?

The EPA is over....deal with it....

 

[Nosmo King]

Which aspect of environmental regulations is least important? Soil contamination? Water pollution? Or clean breathable air?

Which part are you Conservatives most willing to sacrifice in order to get a few thousand minimum wage jobs?

And the liar steps in...the country is filled with pipelines and industry and we have the cleanest environment you can find...all because we are a rich country and we like clean things........the countries with strong central governments, have the worst environments...

So we have a pristine environment here. That must follow, using you own argument, we have a weak and ineffective federal government.

What will your logic tell you when you begun railing against our strong and overreaching federal government? That's a spiky narrow fence you're sitting on there!

 

[Cellblock2429]

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.

/---- Agreed. All those functions should be handled by the states. They already have their own versions in place. If Kalifornia wants to go [emoji817] % wack a doodle let them. Texas and Nevada won't be affected.

 

[owebo]

Which aspect of environmental regulations is least important? Soil contamination? Water pollution? Or clean breathable air?

Which part are you Conservatives most willing to sacrifice in order to get a few thousand minimum wage jobs?

And the liar steps in...the country is filled with pipelines and industry and we have the cleanest environment you can find...all because we are a rich country and we like clean things........the countries with strong central governments, have the worst environments...

So we have a pristine environment here. That must follow, using you own argument, we have a weak and ineffective federal government.

What will your logic tell you when you begun railing against our strong and overreaching federal government? That's a spiky narrow fence you're sitting on there!

The EPA is destroying our environment....,

 

[2aguy]

Which aspect of environmental regulations is least important? Soil contamination? Water pollution? Or clean breathable air?

Which part are you Conservatives most willing to sacrifice in order to get a few thousand minimum wage jobs?

And the liar steps in...the country is filled with pipelines and industry and we have the cleanest environment you can find...all because we are a rich country and we like clean things........the countries with strong central governments, have the worst environments...

So we have a pristine environment here. That must follow, using you own argument, we have a weak and ineffective federal government.

What will your logic tell you when you begun railing against our strong and overreaching federal government? That's a spiky narrow fence you're sitting on there!

The government is the police....if someone breaks the law regarding pollution, they get dealt with....because we like a clean environment...that isn't what you have at the EPA...you have left wing environmental religionists...who worship the earth......you guys believe in separation of church and state, right? That is what we are doing...we want the government to do it's job and not to preach a left wing religion......

 

[2aguy]

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.

/---- Agreed. All those functions should be handled by the states. They already have their own versions in place. If Kalifornia wants to go [emoji817] % wack a doodle let them. Texas and Nevada won't be affected.

Yes.....local control..where local morons can be held accountable if something isn't right...right now, the EPA poisons an entire river, and no one is held accountable because no one knows who gets the blame.....

 

[nat4900]

I seen companies move out of state or country. I've talked with those owners who were moving by no choice of their own. The two biggest culprits for them moving were costly regulations and unions. If not for those two things, many of those companies would have stayed. But they can't compete in the world market today with those costs.

Sure, its not because these companies can pay $1.50 an hour to some Filippinos or Vietnamese...LOL (you right wingers are just mindless morons.)

 

[owebo]

I seen companies move out of state or country. I've talked with those owners who were moving by no choice of their own. The two biggest culprits for them moving were costly regulations and unions. If not for those two things, many of those companies would have stayed. But they can't compete in the world market today with those costs.

Sure, its not because these companies can pay $1.50 an hour to some Filippinos or Vietnamese...LOL (you right wingers are just mindless morons.)

You have no idea of the impact of your environmental damage regulations on our industry....fucking moron democrat.....

 

[sartre play]

I want clean water, clean air &soil would be nice, cutting the EPA how will it impact those things?

 

[nat4900]

hat isn't what you have at the EPA...you have left wing environmental religionists...who worship the earth......you guys believe in separation of church and state, right?

Oh the "horror".....of course we have OTHER earths if this one gets royally fucked so that we can increase the bottom line of some right wing donors.

 

[2aguy]

I want clean water, clean air &soil would be nice, cutting the EPA how will it impact those things?

It won't....any government agency can be cut back 50%, especially one that has been around as long as the EPA, they are filled with corruption, waste, and laziness.....as you can see by the damage they keep doing....and the destruction to law abiding business owners that they do....they have also been weaponized by obama.......they were sent to harrass conservative groups trying to get their tax exemptions....

 

[owebo]

I want clean water, clean air &soil would be nice, cutting the EPA how will it impact those things?

Nope....ending the EPA will stop things like Flynt from happening....

 

[2aguy]

Flint, the poisoning of the Colorado river.....not to mention the businesses destroyed by left wing extremists at the EPA...

 

[owebo]

hat isn't what you have at the EPA...you have left wing environmental religionists...who worship the earth......you guys believe in separation of church and state, right?

Oh the "horror".....of course we have OTHER earths if this one gets royally fucked so that we can increase the bottom line of some right wing donors.

What do you propose we do with you democrats in order to save the world?