Most presidents try to complete unfinished business before they leave office. Sometimes, it’s an elusive peace treaty or a signature piece of legislation. Almost always, the outgoing president should have stayed in bed. The rush to complete a task invariably ends up being a disaster.
Bill Clinton ended up deregulating the banking system before leaving office, and while it may have had some salutatory effects, it also led to the subprime mortgage disaster and the destabilization of banks that continues to this day. Lesson learned.
Joe Biden is on his way out and wants to give Americans some parting gifts in the form of massive regulatory overreach. Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency banned two chemicals used as a solvent and in dry cleaning that some studies have shown lead to increased cases of kidney and liver cancer.
Those studies also show that the two chemicals — trichloroethylene, or TCE, and perchloroethylene, or Perc — only suggest a correlation with cancer. Trial lawyers love that kind of nebulous connection in that it gives them a huge leg up in cases against the chemical companies.
Naturally, the chemical companies are very unhappy, especially the dry…
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