Pushing Us Back to the Dark Days - The Beginning of Year Eight of the Obama Administration

In trying to make its first 100 days look good, the Trump administration is highlighting its record of rolling back federal regulations on things from education to land use to federal purchasing rules.  (See also here.)  Federal rules prohibiting states from limiting funding to abortion providers have also been overturned.

Needless to say, Democrats and progressives, and their friends in the media, are aghast.  President Trump’s actions are pushing us back into the dark ages.  People will go unprotected.  Business can pollute at will.  Etc.  Etc.

The question is, though, how far back are we being pushed.  With these protections repealed, where we will be?  Pick your answer:

1. 1905, before Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle.
2. 1969, before Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency.
3. 1972, before Roe v. Wade.
4. The spring of 2016.

The correct answer, of course, is the spring of 2016.  The Trump administration, along with Republicans in Congress, are proceeding under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to rescind, by a majority vote and with the President’s signature, regulations adopted during the previous sixty legislative days.  “Legislative days” are a defined term, and in this case, sixty legislative days goes back to spring of last year. 

In other words, the dark days into which the Trump administration is putting us are early 2016, more than seven years into the Obama administration.  If these things are as important as Democrats, etc., are now saying, the Obama administration should have gotten them done in its first seven-plus years in office, instead of waiting until part way through year eight.