States' Rights

One wonders just how many outrages it will take until the "hundredth monkey" will tell the IRS to go fuck itself. Taxation without representation, thy name, to-day, is the United States Congress:

The House approved a bill Wednesday night that would wipe out state laws on safety labeling of food, overriding tough rules passed by California voters two decades ago that require food producers to warn consumers about cancer-causing ingredients.

The vote was a victory for the food industry, which has lobbied for years for national standards for food labeling and contributed millions of dollars to lawmakers' campaigns.

A "victory", is it? We're reminded of Bill Clinton's (remember him) positively Rumsfeldian reaction to the ransacking of the Delaney Clause (which had outlawed all carcinogenic materials in processed foods): "...infants and young people are particularly vulnerable to pesticides; chemicals can go a long way in a small body."

And here's how fucking stupid the members of Congress think we are. The justification given for overturning the laws is as follows:

"There is no reason nor is there any excuse to allow regulatory inconsistency to drive up costs and keep some consumers in the dark on matters that may affect their health," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga..

Uh huh, and the reason we can't impose a universal Federal standard as strict as California's (Gee-Dub and friends have, after all, promised, on so many occasions that we've lost count, to "move heaven and earth" in order "protect" the American people) is?

Assuming the Senate will follow the House's lead, what if California were to tell the Bush Administration to get bent? As-of 2003, California received a return of only 78 cents for every dollar paid in Federal taxes; so it surely wouldn't be any great economic burden if the World's seventh-largest economy (or whatever it is) were to go its own way.

What is Dubya going to do, invade California? Fat chance: California is as big as the country of Iraq, and the terrain is possibly as unforgiving. Besides, he'll need all the National Guard he can muster all summer long to protect the Gulf Coast's oil infrastructure against Mother Nature.

The time for an all-out tax revolt is upon us, is it not?

Posted by Eddie Tews at March 9, 2006 01:14 PM