Trump deregulates measures on Wall Street, gun access

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It has only been a month and a half under the new administration, but already agencies under Donald Trump as well as the Republican-controlled Congress have relaxed or even reversed 90 different regulations on everything from the environment to Wall Street.

For example, banks will now no longer be punished for taking extra money from their customers in order to cover their potential losses on high-risk trades like the ones that caused the 2009 financial crisis. Telecommunications companies are no longer required to put forward “reasonable measures” in order to protect customers’ sensitive data.

Hunters are no longer prohibited from buying bullets with lead, which can lead to accidental poisoning of wildlife. And data from the Social Security Administration can no longer be used in order to ensure that those with mental health issues cannot get hold of a gun.

Steve Bannon,  said late last month that the new administration was practicing something called the “the deconstruction of the administrative state,” and it shows.

Lobbyists on Wall Street and other corporate spaces are celebrating the newfound freedom from accountability, even as rights groups are protesting against the loss of measures meant to protect the American people and the planet.

“After a relentless, eight-year regulatory onslaught that loaded unprecedented burdens on businesses and the economy, relief is finally on the way,” Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a memo last week.

Conversely, in a letter signed by leaders of 137 nonprofit groups to the White House, public interest groups wrote: “Americans did not vote to be exposed to more health, safety, environmental and financial dangers.”

Even so, the deregulation continues, with more rules being relaxed or trashed altogether almost every day. It’s not as big or eye-catching as Trump’s attempt at a Muslim ban, but it is definitely worth sitting up and paying attention.