Fighting For Your Right to Shovel Crap Down Your Gullet

Where in the constitution does it say government should promote the general welfare? Preamble? Oh, whatever.

Arguing that the U.S. food supply is 99 percent safe, House Republicans cut millions of dollars Thursday from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget, denying the agency money to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress.

Saying the cuts were needed to lower the national deficit, the House also reduced funding to the Agriculture Department’s food safety inspection service, which oversees meat, poultry and some egg products. And lawmakers chopped $832 million from an emergency feeding program for poor mothers, infants and children. Hunger groups said that change would deny emergency nutrition to about 325,000 mothers and children.

...“Do we believe that McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Safeway and Kraft Food and any brand name that you think of, that these people aren’t concerned about food safety?” Kingston said on the House floor. “The food supply in America is very safe because the private sector self-polices, because they have the highest motivation. They don’t want to be sued, they don’t want to go broke. They want their customers to be healthy and happy.”

Next on the agenda: blocking your ability to sue McDonalds and KFC and Safeway and Kraft Food. Then deregulating food companies so they can start using horsemeat and human flesh from industrial accidents again, like in the good old days. And getting the unions out, so we can start hiring less-skilled people for important production jobs.  And eliminating those troublesome truth in labeling laws!

Taking the broader view, it's pretty clear why the insurance companies love these guys so much.