Government Continues to Grow during Lame Duck Season

Nestled between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as we all revel in the season and work on getting things handled at the office so that we can spend some time with family and friends in just 20 short days, our Senators in DC are hard at work making sure that they can toast to new taxes on New Year’s.

What am I talking about?  It’s hard to know, isn’t it, with so many opportunities being discussed to raise our taxes- The Food Modernization and Safety Act (S510).  This act will tax food producers in the midst of an on-going recession, and will give our federal government new, unprecedented power over this industry- both foreign and here at home.

So how does it work?  The act requires that food sold within the US must be inspected by an FDA inspector- and they plan to hire 5,000 new employees in the next two years in order to do this.  That’s right, as you and I are still tightening our belts, and employers across the nation are struggling to keep their existing employees paid, our federal government wants to increase its own size even more.

Of course, there will be new streams of revenue created by this bill… now that all food must be inspected by the FDA, the farmer/seller will be charged a fee.  Expect your food costs to increase as the growers/sellers must pass on that new, added expense.

Wait! It gets better.

Suppose that same grower who will be paying these new fines just to be able to continue their job has one instance of food poisoning. In the event of a recall, the new fees put the cost of that recall directly on the grower. This one instance of food poisoning (which, if you follow food news, you know food poisoning can crop up just about anywhere), could easily put the farmer out of business, as they have to deal with a possible nationwide recall, investigations, public notifications and of course the loss of revenue.

Meanwhile, these 5,000 new employees will be regulating foreign imports into the US as well. In order for foreign food companies to export to the US, they must first be inspected by their own government (provided its standards are deemed strict enough by, who else, our government), or they must be inspected by our new 5,000 inspectors. In the summary provided by congressional staff, it says this regarding this legislation’s power: “Directs the Secretary to develop a comprehensive plan to expand the technical, scientific, and regulatory capacity of foreign governments and food industries from which foods are exported to the United States.”

A legislator who I worked for several years ago told me that the first rule of legislating is this: Do no harm. He said the second rule is  similarly simple: If the problem can be solved outside of government, take no measures to correct it. This law is a rather brilliant example of what happens when legislators fail to follow either of the two rules.

Currently, the Senate has passed the bill, and it is resting in the House, where it is being held up by representatives who are concerned about its house of origin.

You see, our constitution states clearly that any revenue-raising bill, such as this one, must originate in the House, then go to the Senate. So those Senators of ours? Either they failed to read the bill and don’t know that it’s raising revenue, or they know and they ignored the constitution. Luckily for those of us who think that government should be limited in size and scope, this scuffle will likely slow the bill down- though it may still be pushed through in a few weeks.

Thanks to Nathan Unruh for the background research.