Business to Bush: A parting pi

By
Max J. Castro                                                                       Read Spanish Version
majcastro@gmail.com

The
last seven years have been an unending gravy train for business
interests, especially for big corporations and friends of Bush,
Cheney and the Republican Party. The decimation of agencies charged
with policing business, lax enforcement of health and safety laws, a
rollback on existing regulations and a near moratorium on new ones,
no-bid contracts, and the virtual privatization of major portions of
the Iraq war: this and more has taken place under this
administration, which has been a dream-come-true for business and a
nightmare for workers, consumers, and the public.

And
the worst may be yet to come, according to a December 2 New
York Times
story (“Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote”), which
reports that “business
lobbyists…are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of
health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can
get better deals from the Bush administration than from its
successor.”

Not
sated by the generous benefits that the Republican administration has
granted them during its two terms, various business interests are
working hard to make the last year of the Bush presidency an orgy of
greed and social irresponsibility.

According
to the Times,
businesses
hoping for farewell gifts from the Bush administration include:

• Poultry
  farmers seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons
  of chicken manure.

• Businesses
  lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let
  employees take time off for family needs and medical problems.

• Electric
  power companies pushing the government to relax pollution-control
  requirements.

• Automakers
  trying to persuade officials to set less stringent standards for the
  strength of car roofs than consumer advocates say are needed to
  protect riders in a rollover.

• Trucking
  companies trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the
  maximum number of hours commercial truck drivers can work.

• Coal
  companies lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump
  rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams
  and valleys.

The
push by business is driven by greed and fear, namely the desire to
get in one last time on the buffet Bush has provided business since
the first day of his administration and apprehension that a new
Democratic administration might actually weigh the interest of
ordinary working Americans and the environment when it comes to
regulations.

Business
has some reason to worry. Take family leave. By the standards of
other rich nations, the 1993 Family Leave Act is an exercise in
minimalism. That is why Democratic candidates for president have
offered proposals to expand the law. But business opposes this; even
the meager protection provided by the Family Leave Act is too much
for the business lobby. In fact, business wants the Bush
administration to cut back family leave. It knows it needs to prevail
now because it won’t get its way under a Democratic administration.

Beyond
getting the current administration to lock in pro-business rules
before Bush vacates the White House, business already is scheming to
blunt the actions of a potential Democratic government. Plan B
consists of pouring money into the campaign of leading Democratic
candidates, especially that of business-friendly Hillary Clinton, and
hiring Democratic lobbyists to carry water for the corporate lobby in
case of a victory by the Democrats in November 2008.

Congress
and the public must rise up to prevent the Bush administration from
giving business all remaining item in its wish list in 2008. And,
given that the leading Republican candidates for the presidency are
if anything farther to the right than Bush, in the American
electorate must choose whether it wants a government that can serve
as a check on the wishes and excesses of business or one that
facilitates and enables every item on the corporate agenda.