Partisan Poison

This is the time of the week when I excoriate the nasty republicans for all sorts of crappy behavior. Let's see, where to start?

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Tried any of those german cucumbers lately? The GOP wants to cut funding for food safety by 87 million dollars. Wasn't it only a few years ago that we had the big peanut contamination crisis? Spinach? Cookie Dough? Earlier this year the House republicans tried to cut 241 million dollars from the budget so I guess that we are making some small progress.

From WAPO...Food safety advocates said that without additional money — let alone the current funding FDA receives — the agency will not be able to meet many requirements of the new law, including increased inspections of food manufacturing plants, better coordination with state health departments, and developing the capacity to more quickly respond to food-borne illnesses and minimize their impact.

Now in a perfect, free market, libertarian world, there would be no need for the government to protect food safety. I think of Alan Greenspan fumbling for his glasses, saying that he would have to reboot his internal computer, when confronted with the debt swap crisis.  The theory, courtesy of Ayn Rand, is that producers would ensure food safety themselves because they would get clobbered in the market if people knew that their crop would kill you. Call it enlightened self interest.


The reality is that people unfortunately commit career suicide all the time and tend to always grab that fast buck. People don't adequately police themselves or if they do, they do a piss poor job, see BP Gulf oil spill. So most of us see a need for someone watching our backs and ensuring that our food is safe, because I don't know who's growing it and now can't even find out if it has been genetically modified.

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GOP wants to loosen nutritional standards for school lunches.

From WAPO...On Tuesday, the GOP majority on the House Appropriations Committee approved a 2012 spending plan that directs the Agriculture Department to ditch the first new nutritional standards in 15 years proposed for school breakfasts and lunches. The lawmakers say meals containing more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy will cost an additional $7 billion over five years — money they say the country can ill afford in difficult economic times.

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 GOP wants to limit effort of the FDA to set up guidelines for marketing food to children.

From WAPO...The committee also directed the USDA to scale back participation in an effort to develop voluntary guidelines for companies that market food to children. And it directed the FDA to exempt grocery and convenience stores and other businesses from regulations set to take effect next year requiring that calorie information be displayed.

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The House subcommittee also proposed a $35 million cut to the Food Safety Inspection Service at the Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for the safety of meat, poultry and some egg products.

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The GOP is trying to gut tobacco regulation.

From WAPO...a provision offered by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) that would block the FDA from issuing rules or guidance unless its decisions are based on “hard science” rather than “cost and consumer behavior.” The amendment would prevent the FDA from restricting a substance unless it caused greater harm to health than a product not containing the substance.
“The FDA is starting to use soft sciences in some considerations in the promulgation of its rules,” said Rehberg, who defined “hard science”, as “perceived as being more scientific, rigorous and accurate” than behavioral and social sciences.
“I hate to try and define the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist, between a sociologist and a geologist, but there is clearly a difference,” he told the committee.
Rehberg said his rider was not targeted at tobacco, but anti-smoking advocates said Wednesday that the rider would make it impossible for the FDA to regulate menthol in cigarettes, a major decision pending at the agency.
“This would undermine a law that Congress passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support two years ago,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “It would undo the one thing that all members of Congress agreed upon, which was to protect kids from tobacco.” 

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 John Boehner fights foreclosure relief. Huffpo


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Palin and the truth.

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It's War.


GOP war against the EPA.


Mitch McConnell accuses EPA of War on Coal.


Republican War on Women. And here.


GOP war on plastics.


Scott Walker's war on men.


War on the environment.


Conservative's War on Bank Customers.


Republican War on Medicare.


GOP war on education.


Right Wing hates scientists.


War on War.