Washington can’t meet the Cheerios Standard
Washington can’t meet the Cheerios Standard
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009
I think it’s time we applied the same advertising standards to Washington’s legislative products that the feds apply to breakfast foods. The Food and Drug Administration rapped General Mills this week for making misleading claims about the benefits of Cheerios. The food manufacturer says the whole-grain O’s are “clinically proven to lower cholesterol.” The FDA demanded packaging changes to ensure truth-in-labeling.
Well, how about the bogus marketing of the fiscal “stimulus?” President Obama and the Democrats promoted the trillion-dollar package as job creation salvation. The White House claims 150,000 jobs have been “created or saved.” But since February, the nation has lost more than 1.3 million jobs. The current 8.9 percent unemployment rate in the wake of stimulus passage is worse than the 8.8 percent unemployment figure Obama’s economists darkly predicted if Congress didn’t immediately adopt their recovery plan. (See Innocent Bystanders.)
The “stimulus” was supposed to provide aid to the country’s neediest areas. It’s not. The Associated Press reported after reviewing 5,500 planned transportation projects that “states are planning to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest.”
President Obama promised that Americans would be able to track “every dime” of the “stimulus” at one, handy clearinghouse website. They won’t. The Recovery.gov site data won’t be fully available until next spring – halfway through the program.
Washington told us the “stimulus” projects were “shovel-ready” and would provide immediate relief. They’re not. The New York Times notes that the program “has paid out less than 6 percent of the money, largely in the form of social service payments to states.”
Democrat leaders baldly claimed that “There are no earmarks” in the bill. But untold tens of millions of dollars are headed to pet projects such as skateboard parks, tennis and basketball court renovation, the National Zoo, the $11 million Bridge to Microsoft, and Pennsylvania King of Pork Rep. John Murtha’s ghost airport to nowhere.
More falsely-labeled products in the Capitol Hill pantry: How about the “Toxic Assets Relief Program?” The trillion-dollar-plus banking bailout morphed from a toxic assets purchase plan to a capital injection plan, back to a toxic assets purchase plan, to a life insurance company bailout, to an auto supplier bailout, and may now be used to bail out the state of California. Supporters of that maneuver argue that TARP should be extended to every cash-strapped state and local government to guarantee their debts against default.
How about “Social Security?” There’s nothing secure about it. While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scoffed during the Bush years that “the so-called Security crisis exists in only one place – the minds of the Republicans,” the insolvency problem festered. Now, the Obama administration reports that both Social (In)security and Medicare are hurtling toward bankruptcy far sooner than previously estimated. The “trust funds” exist only in the minds of the deluded.
And just this week, Congress collaborated with the White House to conjure up a misleading description of President Obama’s $108 billion bailout of the International Monetary Fund. They’re advertising the expenditure as a “line of credit” with the “hope to get the money back,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “So the White House argued that the budgetary impact should be calculated at zero.” That’s right. Capitol Hill is officially claiming that $108 billion = zero.
If Beltway spending plans were breakfast cereals, they’d be yanked from grocery stores in a heartbeat. Their promises and premises are as full of holes as a box of persecuted Cheerios.
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Categories: Subprime crisis, fiscal stimulus
Big Government
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“So the White House argued that the budgetary impact should be calculated at zero.” That’s right. Capitol Hill is officially claiming that $108 billion = zero.
And to top all of this off …
Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load “Unsustainable”
What the h$%^ was he, an innocent bystander? Oh right, I forgot. It’s all Boooosh’s fault.
DC has a standard of their own…
Government approved, FDA tested, vitamin depleted, cost enriched: Cream-O-Buckwheat
Government, the high Fibber diet.
They took all of my money; Now their after me lucky charms !
See! Without Porkulus, that would have been 1.45 million jobs lost!
I assume you are all familiar with the Cheerios method of potty training for boys? You could say that Congress’s methods are like “pissing on Cheerios”. This analogy can be used in more than one way.
Exactly which 150,000 jobs???
I CALL BS!!!!!
I know I am not the first
Handing out s-chip cards to illegals.
Everything about this administration is BS. They are arguing that $108 billion is equal to zero, so we can all rest assured that the 1.3 million jobs we lost were really 150,000 jobs gained. At least by their math.
Oh, that and ACORN census workers.
Obama’s plan is working perfectly. These failures actually succeed in the master plan which is to destroy all wealth so all power is concentrated in his bunch. This includes eliminating the value of your securities and also your savings by runaway inflation. Don’t forget the gold confiscation of the 30’s.
Don’t you mean those who hand out s-chip cards to illegals?
Any job created or saved will be government only.
Leprechaun in the ‘hood
up to no good…
where’s me gold?!
Yes
It’s not hard to see coming, is it?
4 legs good…2 legs bad
Which reminds me…when will we see a new tab at whitehouse.org for CARS with dropdown to select Ford, GM or Chrysler?
Aye! Sadly unlike Leprechauns there really are Obaminites
Is there some kind of repellent we we can put around the doors and windows to keep them out? Is there a spray?
A little OT but related, I heard on FOX this morning (the show after F&F) that a company called YRC Trucking (I think it’s Roadway) is asking for a bailout. They claim that their pension costs are more than they can sustain. I’m not sure, but I’m betting the teamsters Union was involved in negotiating these deals.
So where is the money that was supposed to be put into the retirement trust funds? We know that Congress raided the SSN trust fund, but I’ve always been under the impression that American business was regulated by the IRS and the SEC to fund the pension liabilitites.
Where did it go?
And the IMF has a strong record of collecting on loans, right? Only the U.N. has a worse track record of wasting money. But don’t fear…Obama will see that America becomes the world leader (in wasteful spending and the butt of all jokes).
The federal government of the United States, as currently led, is an ongoing criminal enterprise that has got to be stopped. Looks like the states will need to take collective concerted action to shut this beast down since the “principled opposition” in congress are either clueless or powerless.
Apparently the Constitution is nothing more than toilet paper to these people.
Great column, Michelle.
Only one caveat comparing government claims to those on a box of Cheerios. There is a chance that the Cheerios claim may be true.
Salt kills leeches.
This should do the trick.
Hang a crucifix in the window…wonderboy hasn’t been seen near one in quite a while.
You forget the congress is planning to hold some “Truth Commissions” shortly. Lying, cheating and stealing are the only things that I see coming out of Washington DC lately.
Or, in the parlance of Barney Frank, “twoof commishions (slobber)”
Dems treat us just like the Trix rabbit:
Silly taxpayers! Truth is for suckers!
Well, they were warned: “Nobody messes with Joe!” Now they will suffer his bitter wrath. Better send the kids to bed lock the doors and draw the curtains. This won’t be pretty.
Perhaps we should demand a warning label on the bottom of the White House stationery.
“The Secretay of Labor determined that this product may prove hazardous to your financial well-being”
But who will pay for the salaries of those government jobs?? That is what I can’t come to grips with! If capitalism is dead, where is the tax money going to come from to pay the government? Even as we speak, the tax revenue is down so far that SS is in serious jeapordy sooner than they had forecast. And Medicare is almost broke. And just the other day, Joe Biden told a bunch of school kids that “Big Brother Barack” and “Uncle Joe” will make sure they all get to go to college, even if they have no money. These morons belong in an institution for the criminally insane. They are bankrupting the entire country.
Excellent work as always, Michelle.
The process continues until the country hits a level of economic equilibrium where all are uniformily miserable, except for the ruling elite, their upper level government bureaucrat minions, and their corporate cronies.
That is the model for “social justice.”
You will be able to barely afford meat 5 meals a week and the elites will be dining on Kobe beef. Pigs on their hind legs.
Hey, leave Ford out of it. They’re the only one of the Big 3 that had sense enough not to take any federal money.
Thank goodness for that. Still makes it possible to buy an American product with at least a halfway clean conscience.
My $.02 …
If that happens in the United States of America, there WILL be armed rebellion…no doubt about it.
I think the plan of individual states taking back their rights is a good way to fight this!! How many states have conservatives in their legislatures and the governor’s office? We might have a chance with them. I know that a few have refused stimulus money, but not many.
Obama is just showing us his “core set of values”
and “collective salvation”…
I always thought of Cheerios as an innocent breakfast food…ahh-but no more!
I always thought of Cheerios as an innocent breakfast food…ahh-but no more!
Congress = “Truth Commission”. Now that is an oxymoron. What we need is a blood letting…..
The Collective
The Borg is a vast collective of humanoids that have been assimilated by the Borg Collective. These humanoids, called Borg drones, have various cybernetic implants embedded inside and outside their bodies. These implants connect all the drones to each other in a massive collective called the hive mind, which supresses each drone’s individuality. Drones have the ability to adapt to enemy weapons which makes them a powerful enemy. Their main goal is to find perfection by assimilating more species and technology but they only assimilate what they think is relevant biological or technological traits. The Borg are un-emotional but efficient and can only grow in numbers by assimilation.
The traditional Borg hail which is delivered before the assimilation is as follows: “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.”
In case you need more info on The Collective.
Is it possible that Barrak is putting the screws to the US such that we become defenseless to Islam. Trash the economy, trash the immigration policy, trash the military, trash the right to bear arms and the nation is wide open for invasion.
cheerios don’t kill people…
people frying them do.
I am taking bets that the first Dem appointed to the “Twoof Commishion” will be Jaime Gorelick.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/mistress_of_disaster_jamie_gor.html
Her work is not quite done as America is still (barely) standing.
Does this mean Obama is a drug?
Those 150,000 jobs are in China. Instead of a nation of producers, we have become a nation of warehousemen.
Sexist.
It doesn’t matter.. while Michelle sums it up perfectly … the majority of Americans are mostly in the dark or have short memories, they have Bush to blame when all else fails too and Obama knows it.
This is about POWER for him, nothing more, nothing less. P O W E R mark my words, causing confusion flip flopping, (most people won’t remember them) whatever works to make yourself at the end of the day look good… it’s for POWER.
But this turnabout from Obama saying that WE cannot sustain the current debt level has me thinking he’s just a total nut case.
??
What’s with the “WE”? Maybe he has a mouse in his pocket?
Now, after this long drawn out celebration of OBAMAFEST, perhaps people are starting to wake up to the nightmare that they created and are in. Hopefully they are realizing that Obama is not the Godsend that they thought and that Pelosi, who is lying through her teeth on Capital Hill is not the Goddess she makes herself to be.
The DEMS pushed the agenda of anti-Bush and the public fell for it. They didn’t know, and still don’t know what they were voting for, all they knew was that they were voting against Bush. As time goes on maybe more and more will wake up to reality and in 2010 Obama will be hogtied.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT 1:
How about this for a conspiracy theory: A conglomerate of liberal eco- wackos with money conspired to ruin the American auto industry. In the summer of 2008 they speculated in oil futures and drove the price of gasoline up. Therefore, auto sales went down because people stopped buying big gas guzzling cars. They auto industry goes to D.C. and asks for money and promptly get their hands slapped. Now. executives heads roll, GM now stands for Government Motors, dealerships are forced out of business, Chryslers going bankrupt, etc, etc…
FOOD FOR THOUGHT 2:
Oh, and by the way, the world will not come to an end in 2012. Although, It may end as we know it. For those who are Christian and believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ, no worries. You will be caught up in the rapture and will miss out on the seven years of tribulation and the horrors that will happen.
Let’s not overlook that Obama tossed Pelosi under the bus yesterday. The elites in the media and political establishment is finally figuring out why the only fighter in the ring is getting bloodied. Maybe they are blind to the other fighter? Conservatives?
There is no need to despair. Imagine how frustrating to be them. They control everything and still can’t get anything done. They can’t even blame the castrated GOP anymore. Just some invisible spook in the ring.
When my fellow baby boomers start to retire and are told that the money is gone is when the politicians will be strung up.
I can hardly wait to hear the excuses for giving my retirement funds to some foreign country or welfare recipients like those that live in New Orleans.
He followed up by throwing himself under the bus today.
No way. Go StarGate on ‘em.
Hope is not a plan; not all change is good. WE are the civilian national security force. Say it with high explosives. The resistance is here; the resistance is now. RESIST!!!!!!
ECS
Comment from THE ONE…..I WON!
What else is terrorist Bill Ayers and Rev Wrong plotting with their buddy?
Dear mortgage company,
Since I plan to pay my mortgage off in 27 years, why don’t we just call it even and drop my balance to zero now?
Hey, it works for the federal government.
That’s not all the White House is claiming. On May 11th they also made the claim that the stimulus package will save 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 while at the same time admitting that unemployment is likely to be higher. Here is a sample of the laughable double-speak that was put out by this unnamed senior administration official:
So, no matter what happens over the next two years, they will still claim that millions of jobs were “saved”. And even if unemployment quadruples they will say that it would have been much worse without the stimulus. An undisprovable hypothesis is not scientific; it only works in politics.
But one claim they won’t be able to substantiate is Obama’s promise that 90% of the jobs created by the stimulus would be in the private sector. The private sector continues to lose jobs while the public sector is growing by leaps and bounds. So, as it stands, 100% of the net jobs are in the public sector.
Many more of these home runs, and the Mets may come knocking on your door, Michelle.
Go Phils!
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Ms. Malkin,
I know you’re very busy running down other information for other news items but I was wondering if you could clarify your opening with Cheerios.
According to the original story I read about the FDA and Cheerios, the FDA did not dispute that Cheerios had the positive health effect that it stated on the boxes; the FDA wanted the statement removed because they argued that the effect of reducing cholesterol made Cheerios a “drug,” with all the attendant FDA regulatory procedures and rules. GM bowed rather than face that kind of hassle… In my eyes that makes the Cheerios story more about Gov’t regulation out of control than about a spurios claim by General Mills.
I’ve been reading for years and know that you’re good about clarifications, updates, and corrections. If you have the time, please update, so I have the right information if I’m wrong.
Thank you.
This was about a spurious claim by the government, not General Mills.
Here’s the gist of Michelle’s post:
The government gets its panties in a wad over a statement about Cherrios, but won’t apply the same standard to its own activities. The problems with the statements about Cheerios are infinitely less severe than those with the government’s lies that Michelle stated, and Michelle correctly calls them on their hypocrisy.
Are you getting it now?
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Sadly, this truth is merely a continuation of prior administrations.
Time to oust the Republicrats.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
A point that I have been making for some time…
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
All this means is that they will move the goalposts.
Typical liberals.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
That one’s right up there with his claim that 95% of all Americans would have no tax increases of any kind.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I’m really hoping for a vivid dream about this tonight.
We live in a day in time where subliminal messages designed by marketing majors permeate everything we have, or do, in life to influence what we will buy!
Both parties have told some doozies, yet only one of them has the constant cover of the media!
A big , big , big one is planned for the end of the month.
We will be the audience for the selling of the “holy grail” of socialism-Socialized medicine.
They have organized the unions and every other leftist group they can muster to turn out in force in cities across the nation, and will show America that “people really, really, want socialized health care”.
My friend Liberty Belle has already organized a Funeral for Health Care counter protest for our city, but we know who the medias cameras will focus on.
The Pelosi scandal is an unexpected distraction they had not counted on, but any distraction that screens this coming media blitz will do.
I hope people are getting wind of this and are organizing counter protests, if they succeed the door to socialism will pass by in our rear view mirror!
When Socialist’s Armies Mass
RWR,
I get the gist of the Ms. Malkin’s editorial – that the Dems/Obama administration is being (at the least) disingenous or (more likely) deliberately lying about their programs and policies – and their effects.
My point is this: 1. did General Mills actually make a false claim about the effects of Cheerios or not, 2. did the FDA wrap them for “truth in advertising” or does the FDA basically agree with the claim but is distorting the definition of “drug” to include foods that are healthy for you?
If the answer is that the Cheerios claim is true and the FDA threatened to impose its regulatory scheme on Cheerios because of it, then the Cheerios story doesn’t fit the lede of “truth in advertising” for a parallel to the rest of the editorial. That is what, if Ms. Malkin has the time, I would like to have clarified. Honestly, I’d like to have my facts straight before I make other decisions, claims, etc. based upon them. I’m not in anyway attacking Ms. Malkin, I’m just not clear on the facts.
That being said, if, in fact, the Cheerios claim is true, then the Cheerios story is more about the expansion of Government through redefinition, as is common with the leftist/statist progressives. If the Cheerios claim is true, then this story fits more appropriately in a story about the expansion/warping of Eminent Domain into a power by which all levels of government can expropriate property for any reason, or for a story on the gross misinterpretation of the interstate commerce clause to give the “Federal” (increasingly, Central) Government the power to regulate matters within a state, locality, or even for individuals. To me, this is the larger point of the Cheerios story, the way I understand it. Which is why I respectfully asked for clarification.
TRUTH in government…from politicians …now that would be SOMETHING. I am only 65 but I am pretty sure I will not live to see the day. Remember Algore’s one truth…”no overriding legal authority”. There is no legal reason for them to even consider telling the truth.
States Soverency, repeal the 17th Amendment. If nothing else, that would put a ‘term limit’ on the Senators.
Would giving back be….like, not taking a couple of unnecessary Air Force One trips, or maybe buying a $40 pair of shoes and donating the rest of the money to someone who can’t afford shoes?
Nah…giving back is talking and taking.
OK, I knew if would happen sooner or late…wrong thread!
Assume the above comment is in the Michelle Obama talks one.
Sorry, I just can’t get excited by this. Mobama’s speech is the standard feel-good graduation blather that I hear year after year. I remember the speaker at my own graduation making the same plea to serve the community by taking public/social service jobs that don’t pay enough to support a single person let alone a family. This wise advice came from a Levi Strauss executive who was making over $250,000 per year. Finish your speech hypocrita so that I can get my diploma and start the party. How many people do you know changed their career or life plans based on some graduation speech? Anybody that dumb deserves their fate.
P.S. – This is the first four-year graduating class at the new Merced campus. I don’t begrudge the University and the students wanting to make it special. Now, if they intend to spend this much $$$ every year on graduation, then I have a problem.
Way off topic but too important to ignore. The Vice-Bozo has revealed the location of the super-secret 9/11 bunker reserved for officials including himself.
This guy just can’t be trusted to keep his mouth shut about anything.
So the super secret location of the vice president was…wait for it…the vice president’s residence?
That is simply stupid.