Day: December 8, 2008

Via Prester Scott: how have I not heard of this?

In the Wall Street Journal, Rick Woldenberg was quoted as describing February 10, 2009 as National Bankruptcy Day because that’s the day when many of us will go out of business due to the implementation of the CPSIA Regulations. I’m dismayed at how little it’s been discussed online and in the news. I’m shocked that so few manufacturers know about it. Of the ones that do know, most think it either doesn’t apply to them or it will magically disappear or it won’t be enforced so they can ignore it. Come February 10th, a lot of people will be hit hard by reality when their products are returned or their financing is declined.

Another key piece of awesome: Congress wrote the law and forced the CPSC to implement it before the regulations were written. Why do our lawmakers keep voting in laws that aren’t even completed yet? Anyway, the long and short of this bill is that it’s a backlash against the Chinese toy safety scare from last year, and imposes insanely strict manufacturing and testing standards on everyone who would sell, well, basically anything a human being might touch, all in the name of the children. So you want to buy that handmade doll for your kid that you saw at the craft fair? You’re now dealing in illegal contraband, unless she’s willing to eat the roughly $4000 it would cost to properly test her dolls. Scott wisely suggests stocking up on any sort of consumer product (especially child-related product) you might need before this law – and its associated costs – hit the market.

Notably, it passed the House with only a single “no” vote: Ron Paul. Three went “no” in the Senate: Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, and my hometown hero Jon Kyl. And then, of course, Bush gladly tossed his signature onto it and sent it merrily along.

Scott also mentions a similar scenario coming down the pipe that’s devastating for small farms:

The USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was originally designed to give the big beef producers help in getting export markets which required disease controls. The idea is that every single livestock animal in the United States will be identified and tagged. All livestock animal movements will be tracked, logged and reported to the government. The benefit is to the big factory farms who probably do need this type of regulation. They get to do single ID’s for large groups of animals. Small farmers, pet owners and homesteaders will have to tag and track every single animal.

The law is of course devoid of any common-sense provisions or exceptions and will needlessly bludgeon small farms and even some pet owners with costs and regulations to the point of having to close their doors, which very much limits the options for people who want things like hormone-free foods. It has been back-doored into law under the tag of national security (second only to “for the children” as a favorite bogeyman) by the USDA, and is scheduled to take effect January 1st. In the meantime, we get to enjoy SWAT teams coming to shut down our eeeeevil food co-ops.

Scott suggests the next step is weapons – I would say, why stop there? If this is the route the government wants to take, then it won’t be long before every posession we have is tracked by the .gov, which in turn leads to the tracking of the people themselves. It’s a nasty trail to go down, so let’s raise some hell while we can – I just finished writing my representative. How about you?