As Congress impeached, Trump was deregulating

WASHINGTON — Impeaching President Trump was a necessary distraction. It was necessary, even with its foreordained conclusion, because the president’s conduct transgressed acceptable boundaries. But it also served, inevitably, as a distraction from the terrible policies the administration pushed through while we were busy decrying Trump’s behavior.

This trade-off manifests itself with so many things about Trump — the incessant tweets; the constant untruths; the astonishing ignorance, geographical and otherwise. We cannot avert our eyes from this presidential spectacle, nor should we. It demeans the presidency and should concern any responsible citizen ...

So it is worth revisiting what the Trump administration did while Congress was impeaching, from the moment the president’s efforts to use Ukraine as a tool in his reelection campaign were exposed in early September through today. These are not impeachable offenses, but they are the kind of misguided policies that, along with Trump’s impeachable conduct, should be in voters’ minds as the election nears.

Some of the administration’s actions are lamentable but unsurprising; they embody the deregulatory instincts of any Republican administration, even if they at times have a more radical, deeply destructive, edge. Others, particularly in the arena of immigration, are uniquely, repulsively Trumpian.

Together, they offer an unsettling picture of the administration’s priorities, and suggest what a second Trump term would bring. Herewith, a necessarily incomplete roundup:

Environment. The administration revoked one of the most significant Obama-era environmental rules, over “waters of the United States.” The earlier regulation had expanded federal protection and regulation of such “waters” to include streams, ponds and even drainage ditches that feed into larger waterways. Environmental groups argue the change will result in massive loss of wetlands critical for combating climate change and threaten the drinking water supply.

The administration also proposed easing environmental rules in order to speed up construction of major infrastructure projects. The proposed rule, revising an arrangement in place for a half-century, would exclude reviews of infrastructure projects built without major government involvement, set a two-year deadline for drafting and delivering most environmental impact statements, and limit the degree to which such assessments include the effects of climate change.

And, on the first day to begin the one-year process of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, the administration served formal notice to the United Nations it would abandon the accord, forsaking the global effort to combat climate change.

■ Health care. The administration proposed letting states limit the amounts they spend on Medicaid for poor adults. It invited states to transform that part of Medicaid funding into a block grant and offered them new flexibility to cut coverage and benefits. Block grants are a favored Republican technique to limit entitlement spending, and the administration’s proposal was a way to achieve, in a more limited way, what it was unable to get through even a Republican Congress, which balked at its effort to block-grant Medicaid three years ago.

Meanwhile, having supported a legal assault on the Affordable Care Act, the administration urged the Supreme Court to decline to review an appeals court decision invalidating the law’s individual mandate — a delay that would leave the law’s fate conveniently uncertain until after the election, and the administration conveniently spared from facing the wrath of voters who, it turns out, like their Obamacare after all . ...

■ Immigration. The Supreme Court, dividing 5 to 4 along ideological lines, allowed a Trump administration rule to take effect making it more difficult for poor immigrants to obtain admission to the United States or secure green cards giving them the permission to live and work here. This “public charge” rule allows leeway to deny visas to those authorities suspect could turn, “at any time,” to safety-net programs like food stamps or Medicaid.

The administration expanded its already unnecessary, poorly implemented travel ban to include six additional countries, mostly in Africa ... on grounds they have not done enough to identify or share information about potential terrorists or criminals.

The list goes on. The Interior Department is poised to weaken protections for millions of migratory birds, saying companies whose industrial activities kill birds accidentally should not be subjected to fines or prosecution. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is rolling back another Obama-era rule designed to press cities to do more to combat racial segregation in housing. The Agriculture Department moved to tighten eligibility for food stamps in a way that the administration itself estimated would eliminate nearly 700,000 of the poorest adults from the rolls.

The impeachment process has run its course. The bad policies of this administration continue.