Conservatives often describe regulations as “red tape” or as “job-killing” impediments on the economy. But that rhetoric is intended to obscure the truth that regulations set the economic rules of the road. Regulations ensure that workers get paid for the hours they work; that their retirement is secure; and that the costs of the goods they rely upon are affordable. Under the Trump administration, however, those rules are being rewritten in ways that are making it harder for many Americans to get ahead.
The Trump administration has abandoned common-sense regulations that ensure workers get paid for the overtime hours they work, costing them nearly $1.7 billion to date. In the place of those regulations, the administration has proposed a watered-down rule that provides fewer protections and would still cost workers $840 million a year in lost wages.* President Donald Trump has taken a similar approach to a rule that protects retirees from being cheated by financial advisers—a problem that costs people $17 billion in retirement savings per year. The president first abandoned the rule and then has sought to replace it with a cheap facsimile that would do little to protect people. Finally, the Trump administration is looking to weaken standards governing fuel-efficiency and climate pollution, which means that American families would spend a net $23.8 billion more every year largely due to higher spending on gas.**
The above excerpt was originally published in Center for American Progress.
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