They weren’t the kind of policies that generated front-page headlines, but during Joe Biden’s presidency, the Democrat was practically obsessed with helping American consumers. From bank fees to medical debt, credit card fees to student loans, the Biden White House couldn’t magically undo post-pandemic inflation, but it did try to give regular people a break.
To that end, the Democratic administration also set out to help American passengers by barring airlines from imposing hidden fees and even took steps to force airlines to compensate flyers for flight disruptions.
“I really want this to be known as the period when we did the biggest expansion in passenger rights since deregulation, and I think we can hit that mark,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last year.
So much for that idea. NBC News reported:
The Trump administration has officially withdrawn a proposal that would have compensated airline passengers for significant delays caused by issues within a carrier’s control. Though the move was announced in September, the Transportation Department formalized it in the Federal Register on Monday. It said it was withdrawing the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking submitted under President Joe Biden in December.
The report added that under the Biden-era plan, passengers would have received reimbursements based on how long delays lasted, starting at $200 and reaching $775 for delays that lasted nine or more hours.
“The proposal, which was never enacted, would have aligned U.S. regulation more closely with airline rules in Europe,” NBC News added.
From a consumer perspective, the developments are discouraging, but they’re also part of a larger pattern.
When Biden and his team took steps to ensure medical debt wouldn’t affect Americans’ credit ratings, Republicans opposed the move; then a Trump-appointed judge reversed the policy. Last month, the Trump administration took new steps to make sure that medical debt does affect Americans’ credit ratings.
Biden and his team tried to make it easier for consumers to cancel services and subscriptions. Then Republicans balked at this, and Trump-appointed judges reversed that policy, too. A couple of years ago, Biden and his team announced a pilot program to allow some Americans to file their taxes directly to the IRS — for free. Last week, Team Trump confirmed that the Direct File program is dead. I realize that this isn’t exactly a hot-button political issue, but I wonder how voters would react if more people realized the dramatic differences between the Democratic and Republican administrations when it comes to consumer benefits. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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