Culture of Corruption
We all know Nanci Pelosi's sermon about Republican corruption in Congress and how the Democrats will take control and make everything better... Yeah. It was a "great day" when Democrats finally wrested control back from the horrible, horrible Republicans. And then, of course, we get great legislature like banning incandescent lightbulbs and the 800 billion dollar (counting earmarks) "economic stabilization act" that nobody wanted. (How is that economic stabilization going, eh, Democrats? The stock market seems to be doing really well... And what about all those banks? The automotive industry? Rock solid now? We told you it wouldn't work.)
Well, we got something in the mail a couple days ago. It started off with "we're all concerned with consume safety" and insinuated that there were new laws and regulations that were going to impact us. Great, this ought to be good. Mind you, this is a company trying to sell their goods. I mean, look at the thing they're trying to sell... It's supposedly a sort of gun that will sample the material of whatever you point it at:
That's right! The answer is just a click away! Let's open the thing up, shall we?
More exciting photos of the gun in action, it seems. It looks like it's supposed to check for lead levels? What? Look over there on the left. See it? "What are the highlights of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and what do they mean to you?" Oh boy. What did the Democrat controlled Congress do this time without telling us? "What are your responsibilities as a provider of child-accessible items?" Woah-woah-woah. Hold up. What does this CPSIA thing actually do? Or, better yet, the question to ask with any Democrat controlled law is to ask "how bad is this for us?" Not "is this bad", but "HOW bad", because there's no doubt that anything that Congress does is going to be bad, period. Here's another telling explanation:
"On August 14, 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law, setting NEW RESTRICTIONS on permissible levels of lead in child-accessible products. VERIFICATION AND TESTING are imperitive to PROTECT OUR CHILDREN from lead poisoning and to reduce the risk associated with distributing lead-containing products." Take it at face value, folks... It gets better. Of course there are restrictions, that's what Democrats think governments are supposed to do. They also pull out the always laughable reason: It's for the children! Right, how many times have I heard the jokes fly when the government uses an excuse like that? Let's not give a Democrat Congress a free pass.
The date, August 14, 2008, gave me a place to start digging up the legislation. It didn't take me long to find it. It's called H.R. 4040: Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, introduced by... Can you guess? A Democrat from Illinois. Oh, how appropriate. You can read up on it at the Consumer Product Safety Commission site, if you want, too. So what does this entail, exactly? Well, to be perfectly honest, when you sell (or resell) anything designed for children under the age of 12, you HAVE to test for lead or you'll be subject to huge fines and prison time. We're talking garage sales, here... We're talking Goodwill. Some are even saying you can't GIVE your stuff away without testing. And because I mentioned Goodwill, you might be thinking clothes. Wrong. Everything! Literally anything and everything designed for children under 12 is subject to this stupid, stupid law. Bikes, beds, hats, books, Legos, stuffed animals, you name it, it's required that you test. There's a great expose write-up on Forbes about it, too... I would highly suggest you read it to get a break down of exactly what this is going to do to our already hurting economy. Further proof that Democrats have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE DOING.
How do you test? Well, the legislature never says, but seeing as how I got a handy brochure from a company that specializes in screening, I'd say Congress had an idea who might be handling that. I don't know about you, but the whole thing reeks of corporate lobbying and a "culture of corruption" that continues to engulf Congress even when Democrats have had a majority large enough to block or pass anything they've wanted since 2006. My gut tells me that a certain Thermo Fisher Scientific was partially involved in the drafting of this bill... Especially when they seem perfectly designed to handle just this type of problem.
Talk about a serious overreaction to the lead paint from China. Heaven forbid we reprimand China and threaten our trade status. No, no, no, it's not China's fault at all... They were only the ones who BUILT the things. No, it was the American outlets who were at fault for not testing the stuff before selling it! Yeah! That's it, exactly! It's the huge, evil, capitalist corporations like Wal-Mart who dared sell tainted goods to the innocent children. Heck, while we're at it, let's use this legislature to smack down everyone who exchanges childrens goods for money! Yeah! We can make everyone from the Wal-Mart managers to the local clothing reseller check for lead poisoning! I mean, it's only painted things from China that were contaminated, but what other excuse do we need to further squash the capitalist endeavors of this country?
Republicans: Striving to mandate that everyone can prosper equally.
Democrats: Striving to mandate that everyone must suffer equally.
Welcome to Democrat America! All hail the messiah! Obama, Obama!