On February 3, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Labor Department to delay implementation of the so-called “fiduciary rule.” While couched by the flaming commie appointed by Obama to run the Labor Department as a way of “protecting” small investors. It is really a guaranteed income stream for the plaintiff’s bar while making investment advice more expensive and less available. It is also another exercise in nannyism whereby Big Government acts in your “best interests” because you are too stupid to do so. One would think that an executive order would have some impact, but you would be wrong.

…Specifically, the President asked Labor to investigate whether the rule is likely to reduce access to retirement-savings vehicles or related financial advice, whether the rule has caused disruptions in the industry that may harm retirees and investors, and whether it will lead to more lawsuits. If a review determines any of these things had happened, the department is to propose revising or abolishing the rule.

So what was the Labor response? Last week the holdovers from the Obama Administration announced that “the Department has concluded it would be inappropriate to broadly delay application of the fiduciary definition and Impartial Conduct Standards.”

Translation: We don’t care what an elected President says.

The Perez loyalists know that Mr. Trump’s second nominee, Alex Acosta, hasn’t been confirmed and will take time to settle in once he is. The review of the fiduciary rule won’t be completed for months, and the rule is being challenged in court. By refusing to delay implementation of the rule in its entirety, the bureaucracy hopes to entrench its main features so it will be too late or too costly or too difficult to do anything about it, even if a review ultimately concludes it was a mistake.

Trump would be better off appointing acting officials who can’t be confirmed and have people who are responsive, if not loyal, to his directions than having large sections of the federal government remaining Democrat fiefdoms.