You Can’t Compete With Weather

A long time ago, when I was Chuck Schumer’s communications director, we would have a press conference every Sunday (he still does). A big part of my job was figuring out an angle that would play well on Sunday night’s TV news and in the next day’s papers. I usually didn’t have trouble coming up with something vaguely feasible and interesting enough to get coverage, but I always prayed for one thing and one thing only: that we didn’t have to compete with the weather.

You can have the most innovative legislative proposal in history with the best backdrop, the best advocates, the best props and if there’s a big snowstorm, none of it matters. Weather dominates news. 

So do plane crashes. Contaminated consumer products like Tylenol or baby formula. Natural disasters that aren’t responded to effectively by the government. And outbreaks that taint things we all use like the water supply.

In dramatically and almost randomly slashing hundreds and hundreds of federal regulations from transportation to health to food safety, Trump is setting himself up for failure. Let’s accept, theoretically, that eliminating the regulations makes sense substantively. That the companies and market will effectively self regulate, that the lack of regulations will make them more innovative and profitable and that nothing will go wrong. That rarely ever actually happens, but for sake of argument, let’s stipulate it. Even then, the politics here really don’t make sense for Trump.

Because the minute you slash a regulation and regulators and then a plane crashes, contaminated baby formula hits the shelves, FEMA botches a response to a natural disaster, lead is found in drinking water — if you’re the politician that cut the regulation and the regulations, you own the problem. It’s now your fault, your disaster, your stupidity. And unlike complex economic or social policies, these stick because they’re easy to remember. Trump cut air traffic controllers and that plane crashed. Trump cut FDA safety inspectors and everyone got salmonella from the chicken. 

There are likely dozens, if not hundreds, of federal regulations that are outdated and should be repealed. There are regulators performing jobs we don’t really need. But rather than just dramatically slashing rules and the people who enforce them, think it through first. Figure out which really are unnecessary and which might have a valid reason to exist. And even figure out which ones create real political risk if you eliminate them because you just might want to keep those around.

This is the same pattern as DOGE. Of course Elon is right that the federal government can be a lot smaller and more efficient. But you do that by thoughtfully identifying where the waste is and cutting it, not by just randomly slashing everything and seeing what happens.

When the basic rules that protect our own safety, protect our food and drug supply, protect our water, protect our kids are thrown out the window and something goes wrong (which it invariably does), that sticks. Forever.

Mr. President, I don’t think your advisors are being honest with you. If they were looking out for your best interests, they would at least find the rules that pose the risk stated above and protect you from it. Instead, they’re putting their ideology and their personal business interests ahead of your well being. They’re putting you at risk completely unnecessarily for their own gain. 

I know you want to do as much as quickly as possible but ultimately, no one is going to remember if you cut regulations in April of your first year or in September. They will remember when the FDA stopped inspecting products, a batch of Pepto Bismol started making everyone puke and it was your fault. 

You were already misled on the way the market and economy would receive the tariffs. Now they’re at it again. Not only should you not follow their advice, you should identify the traitors sitting inside the house and fire them immediately. You owe yourself at least that much.