April 2, 2017

One of Trump's faithful government-annihilating, swamp-cabinet members, EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt, appeared on Fox News Sunday, and Chris Wallace took him to task right away. Polluting America to increase the bottom line for big corporations is simply not okay.

WALLACE: When the Obama EPA announced its Clean Power Plan, it said that the reduction in carbon pollution would have the following health benefits. I want to put them up on the screen.

By 2030, it said there would be 90,000 fewer asthma attacks a year, 300,000 fewer missed work and school days, and 3,600 fewer premature deaths a year.

Without the Clean Power Plan, how are you going to prevent those terrible things?

Pruitt provides the usual lip service claiming that the EPA is simply an organization with a history of overreach, and this 'president' is keeping his promise to rollback 'regulatory overreach.' Wallace called him out for his evasive and irrelevant answer and mentions the steps taken by the Obama Administration to actually improve Americans' health.

WALLACE: But, sir, you're giving me a regulatory answer, a political answer. You’re not giving me a health answer. I talked about 90,000 fewer asthma attacks, 300,000 fewer missed days in school and work...

Here's what the American Lung Association says, "Half of all Americans now live in counties with unhealthy air." You talk about all the regulatory overreach, but the question is, there are 166 million people living in unclean air and you are going to remove some of the pollution restrictions, which will make the air even worse.

So how does Pruitt spin this?

PRUITT: I agree wholeheartedly that we need to focus our attention at making sure we make progress there. In fact, that's one of the key priorities of the administration, is to improve air quality to be on the 60 percent attainment that we see.

WALLACE: And you think -- and let me just ask, and you think that rewriting, in effect, doing away with the Clean Power Plan is going to improve air quality which you say is a major goal?

PRUITT: As much as we want to see progress made in clean air and clean water, with an understanding that we can also grow jobs, we had to do so within the framework of what Congress has passed. The tools have to be in a tool box.

The past administration just made it up. They re-imagined authority on a statute. There’s a commitment with the new administration to have a pro-growth, pro-environment approach to these issues, but also to respect rule of law.

The lawless Kenyan Usurper doesn't understand the Constitution like Trump. Right, Scott?

Pruitt tries to make the claim that the litigation is a deterrent for enforcing these protective measures that clearly save lives, and Wallace reminds him that his own proposals have already been brought to court.

China, once a country we had to urge repeatedly to begin climate-saving measures, is now going to meet with Trump, and Wallace asks Pruitt what he thinks about the roles being reversed: now President Xi has to encourage Trump to participate in the movement we started? Sadly, that is the case.

Scotty evades with the jingoistic America is great no matter what we do train. Because it will be "great" for Los Angeles to look like it did in the 70s, or for water supplies nationally to be just like Flint, or Americans being left homeless, or worse, dying from severe weather events. He doesn't seem to care about people. Just profits.

That swamp is overflowing.

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