Just when you thought you were safe, the House plans to vote on H.R. 4078, the absurdly-named Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act. You can't just stick the words "for jobs" on any pile of dung and then tell everyone it's meatloaf, but H.R. 4078 would prevent the Executive branch from taking any significant regulatory action until the jobless rate goes below 6%; presumably Congress will continue to do absolutely nothing about unemployment and thus keep the jobless rate above 6% in perpetuity. How many times must I tell these pimps! Regulations create jobs, jobs for people who figure out how to comply with regulations and jobs for people who retrofit facilities so businesses can comply with them. And "any significant regulation" in H.R. 4078 includes implementation of Dodd/Frank, so that Wall Street can gamble with our money again, crash the economy again, and start a new round of layoffs again. It's like Congress doesn't understand how anything works. Public Citizen helps you tell your Congressfolk to oppose H.R. 4078.
Meanwhile, if you've missed previous opportunities to comment on the EPA's new soot standard, Moms Rising provides another one. And here we are in the middle of summer, when we tell our kids to go outside and play, just like we did when we were young! Shame that air pollution stunts growing lungs worse in kids who spend more time outside. The EPA's standard would lower limits from 15 micrograms of fine particles per cubic meter to 12 or 13 -- though the American Lung Association prefers 11. If you're thinking that 15 micrograms or 12 or 13 doesn't sound like much, think how many cubic meters there are in the world. Then recall that soot particles are small enough to get in your bloodstream, and that in its gas phase soot contains mutagenic and carcinogenic hydrocarbons. And don't listen to the big corporations whining about how many jobs they'll have to cut if we force them to do anything that might not let the CEO buy his eighth vacation home. Remember -- regulations create jobs, and good environmental regulations save us all money in health care costs.
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