Stop Me Before I Vote Again

A helpful e-mail correspondent called my attention to HR 4167, a bill with an apparently innocuous purpose -- uniformity in food labelling. What could be more rational, liberal, and progressive than that? Here's what AP reports:

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and several other lawmakers support a bill that would keep states from adding warnings that go beyond federal rules....

State warnings alert consumers to mercury in fish, arsenic in bottled water, pesticides in vegetables and many other potential problems. The food industry wants consistent warnings across state lines.

Well, that sounds quite bland, doesn't it? But the devil is in the details. The bill provides that no state can mandate more warnings or advisories or more extensive labeling than what is provided for in Federal law. This is a whack at states like California, where (unlike here in New York) people are quite concerned about what they eat, and the state requires relatively full disclosure. The "food industry" doesn't like this, needless to say.

Now normally I wouldn't expend more than a sour shrug on this story -- amazing how the sovereignty of the states is inviolable when it suits our masters, and can be swept away like a smoke ring when it doesn't. But what caught my eye about this was that the bill has a staggering 227 sponsors in the House.

Now who reading these words will be surprised to find that many of them are Democrats? The diamond on the dungheap, in fact, is none other than our favorite guy, Rahm Emanuel. I don't suppose there are many farmers in Rahm's Chicago district, but presumably Rahm is sending a message -- for the good of the Party.

And then what about Robert Andrews, from New Jersey's first district, incorporating Camden and the Jersey suburbs across the river from Philadelphia? Edolphus Towns, of New York? Steve Israel, another favorite of ours, also from New York? Or Connie Mack, from the southern Gulf coast of Florida? Only Pelosi is missing. Oh, and Steny Hoyer, amazingly.

Now of course the thing that really amuses me is this: plenty of people are up in arms about it -- understandably. You can forget about "acting locally" if Uncle can be depended on to lower the hammer when a locality gets out of line. Here's an example. Note the headline:

House Republicans Move to Kill State Food Safety Labels on Foods

Well, not exactly, Comrade Tofu. The Food Products Association spokesman quoted by AP seems to have called it:

"Our focus is on seeing the bill approved by the full House, by a bipartisan majority."

What do you bet they get it?

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