That’s simply not true. These politicians are against OSHA’s new policy for the same reason they don’t want us to know who is paying them to hold the views they do. The ridiculous conceit that money paid to politicians’ campaigns isn’t outright bribery is belied by their hesitation to allow “experts” financial ties to be exposed. They know all too well that an expert that has been paid by a party that has interests in OSHA’s decisions, in this case the concrete industry, will not be trusted by OSHA as much as a disinterested party. Everyone knows that money shapes the views of those who receive it both consciously and unconsciously. The only reason OSHA would disregard such payments is if the civil servants who make up OSHA itself are revolving door recipients of corporate largesse themselves. Its clear that OSHA’s move to force disclosure of payments is an attempt to avoid the money corruption that is rampant in D.C. Otherwise they would never have established the new policy. If this policy is allowed to stand for OSHA, how long will it be before other government bureaucracies start to implement similar policies? There are massive tensions between the career civil servants that do the yeoman’s work of our federal bureaucracy and the political appointees that head up these agencies. The career civil servants know all too well that their work is constantly corrupted and distorted by their bosses and the boss of their boss. Many of them despise this situation because they went into government work to make government policy and practice serve the people and the Constitution. If they can win a fight like this and stand their ground, it will embolden other agency careerists to do the same.
I’m very curious to see how this policy at OSHA came about in the first place: either Obama appointed someone who actually wants to make sure OSHA fulfills its mission (which would’ve clearly been a mistake on his part given his track record), or the career people beneath the political appointees have maneuvered them into supporting this policy somehow. Curious situation indeed.
