Congress is holding hearings on the toxic FEMA trailer issue today. A quick review: the travel trailers that FEMA provided to Hurricane Katrina victims contained high levels of formaldahyde, which can cause respiratory problems and is a known carcinogen.  Congress (and by this, I mean the Democrats in Congress) has asked the heads of the companies that manufactured these trailers to come and explain why they were manufactured like this.
The GOP – party of responsibility, remember – wants to make sure that no one holds these manufactures responsible for their dangerous products. To wit:
Companies that make recreational vehicles should not be blamed for high levels of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, according to a report by House Republicans.
The partisan analysis instead points the finger at the federal government for not having standards for safe levels of formaldehyde before Hurricane Katrina victims lived in the trailers.
That’s right. The party that continuously proclaims that the government should keep its hands off of industry is now saying that the government should have regulated this industry, and since it didn’t, the industry couldn’t possibly be expected to ensure that its products were safe.
That’s remarkable only in that it’s the least common tine of the GOP’s three-pronged approach to responsibility in business. Most often you hear that government has no business setting any kind of safety standards – “let the market sort it out!” Of course, this means that you end up with things like trailers made with carcinogens.  In this case, the market has clearly decided that it’s okay, but only because trailer residents generally can’t afford to hold the builders responsible for resultant breathing problems or cancer. And if, by chance, those residents somehow figure out how to do that – say, by trying to hold the builders responsible for their actions in court – the builders can count on the usual GOP mock-outrage over “trial lawyers!” They’re the Party of Responsibility, but only until it actually comes time to be responsible.
The third approach – which they use when they’ve been unable to shimmy out of responsibility in courts, or have been laughed out of the “the government should have made us!” defense – is resorting to using the machinery of government to provide industries with immunity. Want to hold an employer responsible for screwing you out of equal pay over your 20 year career? Immunity. A gun company responsible for turning a blind eye to the distribution of its products? Immunity. Telecom companies for breaking the law that keeps them from sharing your information with anyone without a warrant? Immunity.
The GOP reliably hits on the theme of responsibility, and it’s the reason a decent number of voters identify as Republicans. But it’s just a marketing them. Nothing more. Too bad its supporters can never seem to figure that out.
