By Phil
Mattera in the Dirt Diggers
Digest
Many analysts of the presidential
election are depicting it as a victory for workers, at least the disaffected white
portion of the labor force. It remains to be seen whether Trump can deliver
much in the way of concrete economic benefits for them.
Trump’s triumph may actually turn
out to be a bigger boon for corporations.
Although his candidacy was not
actively supported by much of big business, which remains nervous about his
posture on trade, Trump put forth other arguments that evoke less a populist
uprising than the lobbying agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce , which has
just issued a statement embracing
the election results for preserving “pro-business majorities” in the Senate and
the House.
Trump’s position on big business
has been difficult to pin down. He has often criticized crony capitalism but it
has usually been part of attacks on Hillary Clinton or the Obama
Administration.
He has criticized some companies for sending jobs offshore yet has made tax proposals that would be a windfall for Corporate America.
One area in which Trump’s
position has been unambiguously pro-corporate is the issue of regulation, where
his stance has been indistinguishable from the Chamber and its allies.
Trump has expressed
a broad-brush condemnation of federal rules as job-killing, using the usual
bogus numbers on their economic costs while ignoring the benefits.
He has vowed both to eliminate
many of the Obama Administration’s initiatives and to put a moratorium on most
new rules.
Trump has called for slashing the
budget of the Environmental Protection Agency and for repealing much of
Dodd-Frank, which could mean the demise of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau.
Trump’s embrace of traditional
Republican regulation bashing is all the more troubling as it comes at a time
when corporate misconduct remains rampant.
It is remarkable that so little
attention was paid during the campaign to the scandals involving companies such
as Volkswagen, whose emissions fraud has been pursued by the EPA, and Wells
Fargo, which was fined $100 million by the CFPB for creating millions of bogus
accounts.
By threatening these agencies ,
Trump is undermining future cases against other corporate miscreants.
It’s possible that Trump’s
attacks on regulation are nothing more than campaign rhetoric, but he is now
allied with those pro-business majorities in Congress that are dead serious
about dismantling as much of the federal regulatory framework as possible.
Corporate lobbyists must be salivating at what lies ahead.
Is that what Trump supporters
signed up for?
Do residents of oil and gas
states whose water supplies have been contaminated want the EPA to dwindle?
Do blue collar workers confronted
by predatory lending practices want the CFPB to disappear?
Do families with serious health
problems want to go back to a system in which insurance companies can
discontinue their coverage?
Do victims of wage theft want to
see funding cut for the Wage & Hour Division of the Labor Department?
Trump has promised to drain the
swamp in Washington, yet when it comes to regulation at least he has jumped
into the muck feet first and is already becoming part of the problem rather
than the solution.
Note:
For a reminder of the myriad ways in which the Trump Organization itself has
run afoul of federal, state and local regulations, see my Corporate Rap Sheet on
the company.