They Cut the Refund Rule and Called It Freedom

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-07

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: They Cut the Refund Rule and Called It Freedom

The annoyance economy costs families $165 billion a year. The Trump administration scrapped one of the rules that would have stopped it.

I did everything they told me to do. Got the job. Paid the premiums. Bought the ticket. The whole time the bastards were picking my pocket anyway.

The annoyance economy — hidden fees at checkout, subscriptions you can’t cancel without an hour on hold, insurance prior authorization designed to make you give up, robocalls, spam texts, AI phone agents that can’t do anything but stall — costs American families at least $165 billion a year in stolen time and stolen money. That’s not my number. That’s Stanford economist Neale Mahoney and former Biden Domestic Policy Council guy Chad Maisel, putting it in writing for Project 2029.

Here’s the part that pisses me off. The Trump administration — same crew that ran on ‘drain the swamp’ and ‘cut red tape’ and ‘family values’ — scrapped the airline refund rule in November 2025. That rule would have made airlines give passengers cash refunds for significant delays. Gone. Because freedom, apparently, means the airline keeps your money when they strand you at O’Hare at midnight.

The telecom industry sued to block the click-to-cancel rule. The one that says canceling your subscription should be as easy as signing up. They want to keep you on the hook because the hold time IS the business model. The airline industry spent millions opposing the refund rule. The industries broadly ‘derive big profits from these painful interactions — and fight to protect them.’

That’s not a free market. That’s a bought market. They wrote the rhetoric about consumer choice while their lobbyists fought every damn rule that would have given the consumer an honest shake.

Project 2029 has a bookshelf full of ideas. Project 2025 had a bookshelf too — it was a blueprint for letting corporations squeeze another $165 billion out of the same paycheck. Same coin, different face. Take the flag pin off before you rob the family, you sanctimonious fucks. Family values, my ass.

Source story: the source story.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-07
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: government policy, politics, economy, business and finance, consumer goods
Storylines: economic-policy
Primary entities: Project 2029, Chad Maisel, Neale Mahoney, Federal Trade Commission, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Themes: Consumer protection, Economic policy, Corporate regulation, Election preparation
Floor values engaged: Accountability of power, Equality & fairness, Informed citizenship