Republican plans to roll back regulations raise risks to public safety

In their quest to take the White House in 2012, the GOP is laying the groundwork to unravel as much of the United States government as they can. But the consequences could spell an increase in illness and worker deaths through rollbacks of safety regulations.

Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) has announced  that his personal goal is to tie up the Obama Administration with excessive investigations. Additionally, Issa hopes to push through roll backs of government regulations, including those that include worker and public safety.

Among the GOP targets at public health and safety is the Environmental Protection Agency. Allowing industries to pollute at will, would raise risks to public health. Rollbacks of safety regulations could increase the likelihood of disasters, like the Deepwater Horizon, which killed eleven men, thousands of birds and marine mammals, and left a lingering scare on the environment.

Deadly accidents at mines have also been on the rise, due to safety violations. More are likely to die if safety regulations are removed.

The republican agenda is geared toward allowing corporations to maximize profits, by lowing the costs of environmental and human life protections.

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Privatizing TSA raises threat to national security

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When it comes to government administration, the republican solution to just about every issue is, ‘turn it over to private industry.’ However to some, letting a sub-contractor who may be more interested in profits than safety is the equivalent of letting a privately run, for-profit company take over the military.

What a private company is likely to do is what they have done in the past; hire people at $8.00 an hour and make them work 10 hour days under the threat of firing them if they don’t like it.

How much do you think an underpaid, over worked employee will really care about what someone brings on a plane? And now many of them will only take the job because it’s the only work they can find?

Putting national security in the hands of private industry not only increases the threat to America, but also to the world.

In our new austere America, cost cutting by way of giving the United States government to Wall Street, is not new. Nor is the concept of prioritizing the bottom line over all else. Just ask the families of the eleven men who were killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Safety comes in second to profits in America. Now the GOP is making their pitch to sell our national security for what amounts to $8.00 an hour. Something is wrong with this picture.

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