10.20.06
GOP Administration: an extension of Big Business
I’ve observed before that the mark of a business-dominated government is that its concern is the welfare of business, not the welfare of consumers and workers. The Bush Administration is one of the worst, but the uncritical love of Big Business is a hallmark of the GOP. President Bush takes an action that’s typical of this sort of attitude. From ThinkProgress:
President Bush recess-appointed former coal industry executive Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The Senate had twice refused to confirm him “because of his troubling mine safety record — the mines he managed from 1989 to 1996 incurred injury rates double the national average.”
A couple of observations: President Bush loves the recess-appointment route, which enables him to bypass Congress—I think he’d simply do away with Congress if he could, and of course, he pretty much has, what with the rubber-stamping GOP Congress and the Presidential Signing Statements which (Bush believes) enable him to ignore the laws Congress passes.
Second, not only does the guy appointed to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration have a terrible safety record and was a mine executive (i.e., advocates for Big Business, not workers), the position has actually been vacant for two years, so important is worker safety to President Bush.
