Trump to Announce Big Deregulation Moves to Speed Economic Recovery

President Donald Trump will "slash" regulations in a bid to jumpstart the economy as COVID-19 restrictions begin to loosen around the country. The Washington Post's Jeff Stein and Robert Costa reported earlier today that "senior administration officials are planning effort to relax rules" perhaps as soon as late April, which is just days away. The reporters spoke to two people "familiar with the internal planning" who told them that the "initiative is expected to center on suspending federal regulations for small businesses," as well as "expanding an existing administration program that requires agencies to revoke two regulations for every new one they issue." The changes could affect "environmental policy, labor policy, workplace safety and health care," among others.

I say, "Bring it on."

Or as I wrote for our PJMedia VIP members in March: "Deregulation: It'll Cure What Ails Ya."

Today, the Democratic Congress and the Republican Trump administration are looking at various bailout and stimulus packages because sadly, that's the kind of government we have now -- and have had for a long time. As [Lee E.] Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA’s Department of Economics, warned, "We found that a relapse isn’t likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies." But it isn't often anymore that I mount my mighty steed to go crusading against bigly government spending, because frankly, almost no one cares.

But there is good news coming out of the crisis caused by the Chinese coronavirus from Wuhan, a city in China ruled by Chinese Communists where the Chinese-sourced Sino-virus came from. There's even good news coming out of Washington.

In our proper haste in fighting the virus, Washington is eliminating a lot of red tape.

Deregulation got put on hold in Washington, as there were more urgent measures to take care of, like injecting the economy with enough liquidity to keep things from going completely Tango Uniform. But now that various states are preparing to loosen up on business closures and the like, the Trump Administration is getting serious about getting "the hell out of my way," as John Galt would put it.

Rather than exploit Coronavirus to seize more power, this administration is responding with deregulation and decentralization.

Trump's really bad at this whole authoritarian thing, isn't he?

Also under consideration are a payroll tax cut, more infrastructure spending, and more aid to state and local governments. But those, unlike eliminating prohibitive regulations, would be temporary stimulants instead of permanent ones. We learned during 2009-2010 that brief payroll tax cuts don't provide much stimulus and that sending state governments metric craptons of cash is usually just an invitation to state governments to indulge in pet projects.

Not everyone is excited by that as I am, of course. The WaPo report I linked above felt the need to frame it this way:

Still, the Trump initiative will probably be fiercely criticized by congressional Democrats and other economic experts, who say the administration’s attempts to repeal business regulations reflect long-standing conservative priorities rather than a measure that will help Americans survive the current public health and economic emergency. Trump has for years celebrated a massive deregulatory push under his administration as an economic boost, but opponents say the efforts have created more environmental and labor hazards for workers and consumers.

Business Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig didn't even wait for the actual announcement from the White House before leading with "Republicans Pounce!" The headline to his story reads: "The Trump administration is seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to roll back business regulations as it pushes to reopen the economy." Yes, shame on that nasty Trump White House for trying to help during a crisis.

There hasn't been much pushback -- yet -- but only because the White House hasn't announced anything officially or specific. That will change quickly, probably by the end of the week or early next week at the latest, if the administration sticks to its leaked timeline for late April/early May.

So stay tuned, because the howls of outrage will be beautiful music to our ears.

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UK: Desperate dad,  33,  resorts to pulling out his own tooth in an excruciating hour-long ordeal - as dentists warn of 'critical' PPE shortage

Another shocking penalty of a lockdown

A desperate father resorted to pulling out his own tooth in an excruciating hour-long ordeal after he couldn't get an emergency appointment with a dentist.

Billy Taylor, 33, from Devon, decided to take the tooth out as he couldn't handle the pain. He had been told by NHS 111 that unless he was struggling to breathe, there was nothing they could do to help.

Dentists have today warned that patients are being left untreated as urgent treatment centres face a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Patients with urgent matters such as infections are being forced to take matters into their own hands, as dentists are unable to see them as they do not have the adequate supplies.

The British Dental Association said that 54 per cent of dentists in England have been unable to treat patients at urgent dental care (UDC) hubs, that have been set up across the country after surgeries closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 33-year-old this morning told BBC's Radio 4: ‘I phoned my dentist and they said they were closed and would put me on an emergency waiting list but I didn’t know how long that would take so I phoned 111 and they basically said that unless it was stopping me from breathing they couldn’t do anything.

'This wasn’t the case but the pain was excruciating, so I got an ice pack put it on my face until I couldn’t feel it anymore and the final tug,  me and my son just went for it and it came out, it was quite tricky, I thought maybe 20 minutes but it took an hour and a half.'

Billy had to take drastic measure due to the shortage of urgent care centres open, and even some centres that are open are unable to perform some treatments due to a lack of PPE.

Dr Mike Urlish from West Yorkshire said he is working at the Brighouse surgery but is unable to treat anyone.  ‘I have all the equipment to treat people but I’m not doing it, all I’m allowed to do is give prescriptions out because we have no PPE.

What should you do if you are experiencing dental issues?

Vice Chair of Dental Association Eddie Crouch today said that it's still important to seek help for dental issues.

He said that if a patient has swelling that is impacting the airway or the eyes, then you should attend A&E.  'But if they are not that severe they should phone their local dental practice where the dentist will give then some advice, some antibiotics and if that doesn’t work then that dentist can refer them on to a dental care centre when they are operating.'

'Some dental infections can be life threatening, we know people are keeping away from hospitals but if you have something that severe you ought to be turning up at A&E.'

'We haven’t seen anyone for three weeks because a face to face without the appropriate PPE is not advised and not possible.  I’ve advised people to get temporary filling kits, to take pain killers and if necessary we can prescribe anti biotics but that’s all we can do’.

Dr Urlish said he ordered visors from a school technology department but can’t get hold of the right masks.

‘There aren’t enough in the country and I understand that, they need to go to A&Es and hospitals obviously but we can’t do anything without them because using the dental drill creates an aerosol spray which can spread virus particles.

'It’s not just a case of getting these masks they need to be professionally fitted as well’.

Despite the shortages chief dental officer Sara Hurley, says PPE is on its ways and that a network of more than 200 urgent care centres is up and running.

But Dr Urlish said there are no urgent dental centres in his region and said his surgery has applied to be one but has not heard back.

‘The urgent dental centres still have not been set up and that’s because they haven’t got the PPE, I’m frustrated, I think that is the only word, frustrated I can’t do what I know I should be able to do’.

Vice Chair of Dental Association Eddie Crouch said there is a back log in of patients that are in pain, he said dentists want to help them but added that they need the support to do so.

‘Some PPE is acceptable for doing non-aerosol procedures but that limits what the dentist can do for his patient. Many of our techniques and treatments involve aerosol and wearing the proper respirator type masks and gowns and we know that this is a real problem across the health service.

'We know dentistry is low priority in comparison to saving lives but we do want to help patients and it’s ridiculous that patients are taking their own teeth out in a country'.

With pressure already mounting on the struggling NHS due to the amount of coronavirus cases and a shortage of PPE, Mr Crouch said further dental problems could put even more of a strain on the NHS.

'Many of the countries, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been delivering urgent care centres for much longer than we have in England and the real problem is the organisation within NHS England.

'The command structure that is there means things are done a lot slower and it means that we have had to wait in England a lot longer for policy and distribution and in other countries it seems to have been much slicker and patients are being seen quicker’.

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A shocking penalty for love

Six people were flogged for violating Islamic law in an arch-conservative province of Indonesia today, in a ceremony which was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The public canings in Aceh province sometimes attract large crowds of eager spectators taking pictures on their phones, but today's punishments were carried out indoors with just a handful of people there.

One unmarried couple were punished after they were caught together in a hotel room, while another four were flogged 40 times each for drinking alcohol.

Many of those watching were wearing masks, while the cane-wielding enforcer wears a hood in any case - but not all of the victims themselves had their faces covered. 

Flogging is common for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol and having gay sex.

Today's six victims were convicted before the coronavirus outbreak and officials decided to continue with the canings on a scaled-back basis, local media says.

'To comply with current conditions, we're trying to cut unnecessary procedures like the usual opening speech,' said Safriadi, the official responsible for Sharia punishments in provincial capital Banda Aceh.

'We just carried out the flogging directly to make it simpler. Whipping will still go on, but we're limiting the number of people involved,' added Safriadi, who goes by one name.

Despite the painful punishment, one man whipped for drinking alcohol - who also served a three-month jail term for the offence - said he was relieved to be free to join his family for the fasting month of Ramadan.  'I got bored in prison and now I'm finally a free man,' he said. 'Ramadan is coming and I couldn't imagine fasting in prison.' 

Aceh is the only region in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law. About 98 per cent of Aceh's five million residents are Muslims and therefore subject to the law, known locally as Qanun.

A 100-stroke punishment is reserved for the most severe crimes and offenders may also be sentenced to prison time.

Rights groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has called for it to end, but the practice has wide support among Aceh's population.

Aceh adopted sharia after it was granted special autonomy in 2001, an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency

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Rule of law meets Covid-19

In the space of just a few weeks, the rule of law in Australia has both triumphed in the High Court’s judgement in Pell v The Queen and taken a battering from state governments’ social distancing rules under emergency powers invoked in the name of fighting Covid-19.

The rule of law does not mean imposing the iron fist of a police state, shades of which are to be found in the states’ restrictions. It means, among other things, transparency and lack of ambiguity in the law and the absence of arbitrary action in its application and enforcement.

Most of us accept the need for some social distancing rules to apply for a short period, but the current restrictions go to absurd lengths, lack clarity, leave too much leeway for arbitrary action by officials – and for all those reasons offend against the rule of law.

The relevant NSW ministerial order, for example, includes a list of acceptable reasons for people to leave their place of residence and puts all other reasons – a very large and unspecified residual – as in the unlawful category. This approach offends against the very idea of a free society in that it is a law defining what we CAN do, not what we CANNOT do. Free societies don’t need to be told what they can do.

The inconsistencies, ambiguities and potential for misinterpretation in the NSW order abound. Little wonder that people don’t know what they can and can’t legally do and police and bureaucrats are making up their own interpretations as they go.

The rule of law isn’t like a decoration to be taken down when it becomes inconvenient to the exercise of state power. It is there to protect our freedoms from abuses of state power. The Berejiklian government should immediately rescind this repugnant ministerial order and replace it with something that is less restrictive, unambiguous and defines what residents of NSW cannot do, not what they can do.

In the meantime, it would not be a bad thing if everyone in possession of one of those on-the-spot police fines exercises their right not to pay it and to have their case heard by a court.

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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