Senate passes new food police bill: Roll call vote 73-25; Senator Bennet: “It’s all rigged”
I mentioned last week that a new Big Foodie bill opposed by a diverse coalition of limited government activists, small family farmers, and left-leaning “locovores” was coming down the pike.
Today, I’m disappointed to tell you, the regulatory expansion bill masquerading as a “safety” measure passed by a large margin — with stomach-turning Republican support.
The 15 power-grabby Republicans who voted for it:
Alexander (R-TN)
Brown (R-MA)
Burr (R-NC)
Collins (R-ME)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kirk (R-IL)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lugar (R-IN)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Snowe (R-ME)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
The Senate bill must be reconciled with a version that passed the House of Representatives in 2009 before Congress adjourns for the year.
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Walter Olson weighs in (be sure to go to his post for all the accompanying background links):
The wider question is whether the bill as a whole, with its massive ramp-up of federal regulation to displace both voluntary market choices and state-level regulation, is a good idea. As I observed to TownHall’s Jillian Bandes, despite the panic atmosphere generated over the issue in recent years, the best evidence is that the incidence of food poisoning continues to fall, not rise; one reason for the greater press coverage of the issue is that science has gotten better at identifying and tracing the sorts of outbreaks that were happening all along. To some who promote a more intensive regulatory state, the resulting “crisis” presents a welcome opportunity, even though, on these advocates’ own terms, the existing array of laws provides ample means by which federal agencies can crack down on food actually shown to pose a hazard.
When the new Congress convenes in January, it will bring to Washington dozens of new lawmakers with more skeptical views about regulation, who may listen with favor to colleagues like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who has argued against the pending FSMA as an unjustified power grab. Could that be why Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is determined to force through the bill during the lame duck session? In this case — as with the very bad Paycheck Fairness Act, which Republicans managed to stop earlier this month, and the even more appalling “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act” to force unionization on local public safety workers — it’s almost as if the point of the post-election session is to push controversial measures that would encounter more resistance if held over to the next Congress. Is this really a proper use of the lame duck?
Chris Moody at the Daily Caller reports on a hot mic moment of candor caught on the Senate floor:
A hot mic left on during a Senate vote Tuesday morning on the Food Safety Act caught a senator complaining that process of setting the agenda during the lame-duck session is “rigged.”
“It’s all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged,” a currently unknown member on the Senate floor said. “The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck . It’s just rigged. ”
The remark was picked up live on C-SPAN 2, although microphones are usually turned down during voting times. An aide quickly realized the mistake, jumped up and had the sound cut off.
So who said it? Sounds a lot like my own Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (last heard dodging Peter Boyles here).
David Freddoso thinks it’s Bennet, too. Chris Moody is checking it out.
Update: Yup, it was Bennet. Gaffetastic!
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Another nail of infantilism being hammered into the coffin of the country.
I am at least glad to see neither Cornyn or KBH voted for it.
Gads, lsia has been busy since she was re-elected! This old bat voted for this and against the pork ban. Who would have guessed that? I bet she votes for the amnesty, aka, dream act also.
L
Gads, lsia has been busy since she was re-elected! This old bat voted for this and against the pork ban. Who would have guessed that? I bet she votes for the amnesty, aka, dream act also.
L
Gosh, L, what happened? Sorry on the double post.
L
Another POS bill to repeal in the 2010 session.
6 YEARS is much too long for a group of RINO bafoons to hijack the country.
This must be fought in court by the states. In no way, shape, or form is this constitutional. Not that it matters to far too many in government.
Can this be repealed??? Lord, I hope so!!
Not… Congress’… Job …
Wake up. Learn the Constitution.
It better be…and we have to keep knocking heads in CONgress until this kind of stuff stops.
Slow learners…
Not until 2013, at the earliest. Remember Obama’s veto pen.
In 2013, assuming Obama’s out, we’d still have to get 60 votes in the Senate. With these 15 R’s already voting for it, and with most of them going to still be around in 2013, the chances of ever repealing it seem highly unlikely.
Elections matter. We are going to be paying for 2008 for the rest of our lives.
Slower than molasses flowing downhill in January.
Slow learners indeed. 2012 will be here soon enough and politics-as-usual Repubs should be just a fearful as the Dems..
Another reason why Enzi needs to go. This putz has been in Washington too long.
What can Brown do for you? Not much apparently.
I’m a hankering for some deep fried Twinkies, first round is on me!
I’d like to have an enchilada for lunch. I guess I ought to call my Senator’s office to see if that’s okay.
I hope this smacks Warren Buffett’s Dairy Queen holdings.
Eight Republicans also voted against the earmarks ban. GOP=RIP.
Forgot to add the link.
If the liberals want the government to stay out of our bedrooms, then they can also stay out of our kitchens and dining rooms.
The feds approve drugs, and assure us that the food on our grocers shelves is safe to eat. We are the ones who decide what we put in our bodies. If the food is not healthful, then stop it’s production at the source…or would that mean no monetary contributions from the affected corporations?
Smaller government, means a less intrusive government. The government doesn’t help, except to make things worse.
More DC cleaning necessary. Clear the entrenched out. Brown may have a very short career if he continues to vote like this.
I was listening to Glenn on his radio show today on this issue. It seems monsanto will come out big time on this bill with all they do in the food areas. It seems soros has a huge stock stake in monsanto! I will try to find a link on this.
L
Perhaps if the Senate Minority Whip were to literally use a whip, preferably a bullwhip…..
Burr and Alexander get re-elected and promptly display their RINO beliefs and tendencies. What a total waste of skin.
I’ve said this before, so forgive me.
I think that, after the revolution takes back our nation, the old capitol should be razed.
A new shining city should be built, in the heart of flyover land, that will serve as America’s Capitol city for the next few hundred years. The stench and corruption that is Washington, D.C., has a half-life that exceeds that of Hiroshima.
Here is the Link to Monsanto -
http://www.monsanto.com/investors/Pages/ownership-profile.aspx
Soros Fund Management, L.L.C. Shares owned= 6,522,804
If we stopped importing food from China, there might not be a need for stronger laws.
stillontheroad#29,
Thanks for your link. It seems dear soros has his slimy hands in almost everything that is cratering our Republic. He is one major nasty dude!
L
Repeal? Not any time soon, anyway there are bigger targets to shoot at.
Defund? Absolutely.
Bingo!
right_on, you get today’s Blue Ribbon!
Repeal the 17th Amendment.
Now batting for Illinois, the rookie, Mark Kirk. The Illinois fans have great hopes for this youngster and are waiting to see what he can do here in the Bigs. Here’s the pitch. He swings and he misses. STRIKE ONE! Better choke up and concentrate on the next one, Mr. Kirk. We’re watching. God how I hate these weasels.
Yes, Soros has his icky fingers into everything. He needs consistent watching and constant exposure. All of his hidden agendas need to be identified, tracked and disclosed. He needs to be taken apart at the seams.
Thank you George Sonofavitch, Don’t let the door hit you on the way out
Great idea, but then the state legislatures would choose the US Senators. That means here in California, we’d still have Boxer and Feinstein. For life. Here’s a better way.
For all statewide offices (including US Senator, because they are supposed to represent the entire state) votes are tallied by county. Each county gets one vote. You win the popular vote in a county, you get it’s vote. It’s kind of like a state version of the electoral college. Use counties, not representative districts because they are all gerrymandered. With ties, popular vote total wins. Smaller, rural counties would then have the same level of input as the larger metro counties. As it should be.
This means that US Senators will no longer be representatives-at-large for the biggest metro areas in a state.
Stop all funding for this POS bill.
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HI HANGFIRE–#26. Forget the bullwhip–go with the Roman Flagellum cat of nine tails instead.
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But–reality check–the only action we can take is to put these 15 RINO’s on the open season list for the 2012 elections.
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Remember their names and vote them into FUNEMPLOYMENT. They can join those R’s and D’s that were blown out of office in Nov. 2010.
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John Bibb
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Richard “Smack” Lugar. Makes one proud to be an Indianian, not. I’m moving back to Cicero.
More crap regulations to suffer under.
If we’d regionalize food sources too. For the nation to rely on too few food processing sources within the USA is bad.
But, then, we would have no crises from which the federal govt. can save us.
Plus , true reform doesn’t sit well with the globalist agenda…so bring on in poison food ,medicine etc and don’t forget sickening drywall from China,tires guaranteed to blow you away and who knows what else we are ingesting that will endanger our health.
INEPTITUDE on a grand scale performed by our illustrious government bureaucracy!
The Obama Hellth Careless bill will insure that people have a clear path to death without the encumbrances of decent medical care…the Food Safety bill will insure that more “useless” people get there faster.
Monsanto…don’t they make chemicals? Chemicals from, um, fossil fuel…crude oil…black gold? O-k-a-y….can everyone not see through this “global wealth redistribution, climate change/warming” fraud, now?
Why is it that there seems to be so much more distractions lately? Or, is it that some of us are starting to connect the dots more often than before?
I wonder if people in our government will ever realize what a threat George Soros is to our way of life? If there was ever a “clear and present danger,” Soros is it!!!
My friends must order the medicine they need from another country because it is banned in this country by the FDA. We have illicit drugs EVERYWHERE and medical marijuana, but get some medicine not created by one of the insider drug companies and you are a criminal.
The FDA, EPA and other regulatory agencies represent their own special interest and we are fooling ourselves if we think it is about OUR health or OUR safety.
BTW: I see Kirk got his first RINO vote in.
Electing US Senators by the state legislatures worked as long as it was tried. The US Senate went to hell-in-a-handbasket within a few decades of “direct election.”
I’m for going back to the way we did it before these self-centered, self-serving lunatics sucked the life out of the nation, ruined the economy for their own benefit, and destroyed the future of my children and grandchildren.
Fittingly much of the pork farms in North Carolina belong to US politicians. They are following in the footsteps on Andrew Jackson.
Does the list surprise anyone? This is like the parable about the Fox and the Scorpion…it’s in their nature to vote the way they do, and nothing can or will change that. RINO’s only seem conservative when their necks (employment) are at risk.
I’m surprised about the Vitter vote. In any event, if it passes the House, that’s just one more bill to overturn in the new Congress. As if there was ever any doubt, this proves that there’s no such thing as a Northeast conservative. They’re all liberal corrupt political hacks Scott Brown included.
They can have my lard when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Of course, I expect that was their intent all along…
Just another one of many reasons Lamar! has never and will never receive my vote.
Lamar is a closet RINO. Never fails to disappoint, and only looks good when compared to our other moronic Senator.
It’ll be interesting to see how the slow food movement handles this news.
I recently worked on show about family farms/sustainable agri and I gotta tell ya …this is really gonna hurt them.
I am not surprised at LeMieux (FL) who is a Crist appointee (thank you, God, Crist is gone).
Remember this vote and others when he runs against Bill Nelson for Senate.
He actually had a shot of getting through the primaries in 2012 before this. There’s plenty of agriculture here in FL, but most of it is corporate, Big Sugar, Duda farms, etc.
Thank you Government!! Now I know what to eat. That’s a load off my shoulders.
Support Snowe removal… PLEASE!
Eventually it is just going to come to receiving our daily allotment of Soylent Green. And some of you thought it was just good science fiction. : )
Poor easy bake oven. Cannot cook with a CFL and now can’t even eat what you cannot cook…
Brown (R-MA)
Kirk (R-IL)
I saved my money by not hoping on the band wagon for these two clowns.
The homes of Paul Revere and Old Abe have deteriorated something terrible. Can we spray for that rot? For the other RINOs-tis the season for mischief-from January to December. But George Soros and Monsanto will do well with this monstrosity.
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Let your sidearm be like American Express:
Don’t Leave home without it.
Unless you are from Massachusetts or Illinois (and all too many others) then you just die in place waiting for help. But the police will call for a body bag 30 or 40 minutes later.
Resistance is mandatory
As they say
The more things change…
Don’t touch my junk (food)!!!
How can this be fixed or repealed. Is it too late? Did this pass under the Tea Party’s radar? The food police claim they’re not forcing their notions of a good diet down our throats. Hello! When you’re hell bent on yanking all soda machines and replacing real meat servings at city university campus caferterias with soy burgers like Mayor Bloomberg wants, or spear a sin-tax on meat products like too many holier-than-thou nannystate dietians long, yea I call all that being cohersed to eat what the food police want. I don’t need people trying to save me from myself. We’re adults, not babies. Keep your hands off my CHOICE and table!
Under radar: Listen to your or other kids talking about what their school tells them about this issue!
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Besides the cowards in the Republican Party this bill is pretty much the Left’s punishment for the change in the last election. Many of the defeated will find cushy jobs for service rendered to their betters. Being the whores they are everyone is their better. Monsanto and Soros spread the wealth and demand service and fealty in return.
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Let your sidearm be like American Express:
Don’t Leave home without it.
Resistance is mandatory
*Just another reminder to start brewing a stronger Tea(Party); It goes without saying that all the Dems need to go, but these rat bastard RINO’s are just as dangerous and must be targeted for removal from office in 2012 and 2014!
I just sent crap-weasel Lamar Alexander (RINO- TN) a note thanking him for selling working Tennesseans down the river. These old school Republicrats MUST get the boot next election, and every election after that. I am sick of getting screwed over by so-called Republicans. I expect it from the Democrats, but et tu Brute? Too bad we have to wait until 2014, but Tennesseans have long memories.
where’s RSS saying a bill to force Jewish people to eat shrimp has to be ‘a good thing, right?’
I wonder if this gives them authority over home gardens. I think the Ag Dept has some kind of ilicit backdoor authority over home gardens (probably through that FDR-era misinterpretation of the Commerce Clause).
Remember Shrillery’s garden at the WH? I believe they used sewage sludge to fertilize the garden…yikes!
“President Clinton, is that a cucumber from your garden in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” …quoted from females everywhere.