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What For?

In the latest episode of Bootleggers and Baptists running wild I noticed an absurd provision at the end of the Food Safety Bill being debated:

SEC. 406. FOOD TRANSPORTATION STUDY.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting
through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, shall conduct
a study of the transportation of food for consumption in
the United States, including transportation by air, that in
cludes an examination of the unique needs of rural and
frontier areas with regard to the delivery of safe food.

So Kate Sebellius is going to direct a study to tell people who live in East Jesus whether their food is safe or not?  The provision defies reason. I will only make you and myself dumber for trying to conjure up the reasons why it is being stuck in an already absurd bill. Maybe Ms. Sebellius will conclude that no food should be shipped there, because the emissions are hazardous to their health? Maybe Ms. Sebellius will conclude that only lettuce and broccoli and tofu can be shipped there because we will otherwise be on the hook for paying for their medical bills as a result of the expansion of coverage in ObamaCare? Oh the wonder.

2 Responses to “What For?”

  1. nailheadtom says:

    You’re barking up the wrong tree. The studies will show that Eskimo children don’t have access to affordable oranges, avocados, papayas and durian. Federal subsidies will be required to insure that the cost of transportation for items like these won’t make them prohibitively expensive for people in remote areas. Papayas won’t be shipped in refrigerated containers on ships from Hilo, HI to Anchorage, AK. They’ll be flown at taxpayer expense to remote places like Anatuvak Pass so they can be part of the school lunch program. In fact, this is already happening. Bush Alaska grocers can have inventory shipped to them by parcel post at reduced rates BY AIR, if the shipment is on pallets. The air carriers receive their normal contract rates. Taxpayers in the lower 48 pay the air shipping for ice cream eaten in Nome.

  2. Harry says:

    Oh the wonder indeed.

    The way it is supposed to work is that the more you learn, the more fully you understand your limitations. Kathleen Sibelius clearly missed class when this subject was covered. I bet the students in Wintercow’s Hayek seminar have not missed the lesson.

    Here in Pennsylvania the education department has gotten down to counting the number of raisins served per student per lunch, and it is only a matter of time until they monitor raisins consumed. That will be a neat trick, worthy of at least a hundred doctoral theses alone.

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