No wonder the economy is stalled: Under the Obama administration regulations have increased by 7.4%, totaling 11,327 pages of new rules.
I should add that these numbers were only slightly better under Bush or Clinton. In general, our federal government has done everything it can for the past two decades to stifle freedom and innovation.
Losing the youth vote: In a boycott that began in Pennsylvania and has now spread to Minnesota, children are refusing to eat the Obama administration’s lower calorie school lunches.
Starting this year, there are strict limits on calories, sodium and meat portions. Whole milk is off the menu altogether, and kids are required to take a fruit or vegetable. As parents with fussy eaters might guess, some student’s aren’t salivating over those options.
In the halls of Rockford High School, a food fight over some simple things — cookies, condiments and milk — has started taking off after seniors Adam Anderson and Zach Guthrie set up a Facebook group encouraging a brown bag boycott. Bags were prepared in advance, bearing messages like, “Where’s the ranch?” and “We want our cookies.” By Thursday, the school served about 150 fewer lunches than it had the day before, and students promise the movement will only continue to grow even though there may be no resolution.
I think it a travesty that modern parents think the federal government should provide their kids lunch. This is the parent’s responsibility, not the government’s.
“[Medical] services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.”
Words written by one of the writers of Obamacare, who is expected to be appointed to Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of fifteen unelected officials whose job it will be to decide what treatment is affordable and what treatment is not and should therefore be denied. The problem with the above quote however is that this person is advocating denying treatment not because of cost but because in his opinion some individuals are simply not worth very much to society.
We have got to repeal this monstrosity.
We’ve only just begun: Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
Another reason to repeal: Obamacare increases demand, but locks the price, resulting in a shortage in supply. The result: long waits.
How nice of them: After mandating the sale of 15% ethanol gasoline — which can damage engines and lower fuel efficiency — the EPA is now going to require that you buy at least 4 gallons when you fill your tank in order to reduce the damage.
The entire auto industry has made it very clear its opposition to 15% ethanol because that mixture is harmful to vehicle engines. So, does the EPA back off? No, it instead doubles down, increasing its regulatory control in a manner that is complex, unenforceable, and impractical.
And when this new regulation doesn’t work and vehicles begin to fail, don’t expect the EPA to pay for the repair. Instead, I expect we will soon have EPA regulators standing at every gas station, checking to make sure we use the right gasoline in the right amounts, ready to fine or arrest us if we dare to do something different.
Good news: Despite a 3x increase in the use of gasoline and diesel fuel since the 1960s, the amount of vehicle-related pollution in the Los Angeles area has declined by 98 percent during that same time.
While many on the left will argue that this proves the validity of government regulation, I only see it as evidence that the initial regulations imposed in the 1970s did their job, and that there is no reason for stricter regulation now, something that the EPA, the Obama administration, and the left continue to demand.
Now we have to repeal it: The price of pizza is going to rise because of Obamacare.
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter says that Obamacare will result in a $0.11 to $0.14 price increase per pizza, or $0.15 to $0.20 cents per order.
The fact is that these kinds of price increases are going to occur across the board in almost all service industries, since higher regulation always leads to higher prices.
Extortion does work! Gibson Guitars has struck a deal with the federal government to avoid prosecution for the use of banned wood.
The company will pay a $300,000 fine under a criminal enforcement agreement that defers prosecution for criminal violations of the Lacey Act. Another $50,000 fine will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation “to be used to promote the conservation, identification and propagation of protected tree species used in the musical instrument industry and the forests where those species are found.”
Notice the political payoff to an outside environmental group. How nice. I wish my cause could get funding this way, by having the U.S. government threaten companies I don’t like and force them to give me money.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: A federal appeals court has now ordered the TSA to explain by August 30 why it has defied an earlier court ruling on the use of the backscatter x-ray scanners.
How the federal government has persecuted a scientist for whistling at a whale.
The disappearance of the old-fashioned chemistry set.
Here’s what it used to be like, when we lived in a free society:
By the 1920s and 30s children had access to substances which would raise eyebrows in today’s more safety-conscious times. There were toxic ingredients in pesticides, as well as chemicals now used in bombs or considered likely to increase the risk of cancer. And most parents will not need to be told of the dangers of the sodium cyanide found in the interwar kits or the uranium dust present in the “nuclear” kits of the 1950s.
Repeal it! An Obamacare tax on medical devices has caused one company to cancel plans to build five new factories.
Nor is this the only such medical device company to pull back due to the tax. Read the whole article.
A Colorado judge has issued an injunction preventing the Obama administration from enforcing its contraceptive drug mandate against a private company because the mandate might violate that company’s religious rights.
Repeal it! According to a new survey of businesses, 1 in 10 will drop health coverage for their employees when Obamacare goes into full effect.
Thank you DOT and US Airways: Because of a new federal regulation, passengers who use US Airways for only part of their flight will have to check their bags and go through security again when they switch airlines.
It appears that US Airways is at much at fault here as the DOT. Read the article.
Oy. A new study has found strong evidence that compact fluorescent bulbs can harm the skin.
We’ve only just begun: The lawsuits fighting the Obama administration requirement that religious organizations fund contraceptives against their religious beliefs has now risen to more than 20 separate cases and nearly 60 individual plaintiffs.
