31 October 2009

Health care bill: Calorie counts for Big Macs, vending machines - Nanny State at its Most Caring

October 30, 2009
Categories:

Health care bill: Calorie counts for Big Macs, vending machines

Democrats want you to know that your McDonald's Angus Burger meal has about 1,500 calories -- before you buy and burp.

Buried deep in the House health care bill is a provision, likely to raise nanny-state hackles, requiring fast-food chains and vending machine owners to notify customers of calorie counts -- by conspicuously posting nutritional information on menus or machines.

The provision -- Section 2572 -- requires retail food establishments "part of a chain with 20 or more locations" to list calorie counts "on the menu board including a drive-through board," as is currently required in New York City and other localities.

A "vending machine operator shall provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button" that includes similar data.

Exemptions include items that will be on the menu for less than 60 days -- and limited test runs of food products.

It merges the language of Sen. Tom Carper's LEAN Act the MEAL Act, sponsored by Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), earlier this year.

Such labeling can have a significant impact on consumption habits. NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene polled 10,000 customers to assess the impact of the city's menu labeling law, which went into effect in March 2008, and found that burger buyers ate about 106 fewer calories per purchase.

The idea is popular among progressives and public health types who think it could reduce obesity, hypertension and diabetes rates -- particularly among inner-city folks whose diets are disproportionately composed of cheap, tasty, calorie-loaded Big Macs, Whoppers and Chalupas.

But conservatives and libertarians see it as a major encroachment of the nanny state that has no place in a bill that's supposed to address affordability, insurance industry abuses and expanding coverage.

Radley Balko at Reason.com on the MEAL bill: "Supporters of menu labeling laws know that complying with these laws will be expensive and onerous. That's why they've only applied them to chain restaurants—restaurants they say can afford to send dishes off for nutritional testing. That makes the targets of menu labeling laws corporations, a more politically palatable target than the mom and pop diner."

In June, the National Restaurant Association threw its support behind the Harkin-DeLauro compromise.

Posted by Glenn Thrush 04:02 PM
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via politico.com

This is absolutely nuts!!! Since when is this the government's job? Oh yeah, they want to control everything we do, eat, and say. How well did that work for the Soviet Union, Wiemar Germany, Fascist Italy, Maoist China, and North Korea?

Posted via web from conservativedynamics's posterous

Posted by Corey Freeman at 09:55 0 comments

29 October 2009

Cash for Clunkers costs taxpayers $24,000 per car - per CNN.com

What I got with Cash for Clunkers

Take a peek at the heaps (no offense) these 6 turned in -- or tried to turn in -- to get their Cash for Clunkers deal.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy's expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation's gross domestic product growth.

The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.

"It is unfortunate that Edmunds.com has had nothing but negative things to say about a wildly successful program that sold nearly 250,000 cars in its first four days alone," said Bill Adams, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. "There can be no doubt that CARS drummed up more business for car dealers at a time when they needed help the most."

In order to determine whether these sales would have happened anyway, Edmunds.com analysts looked at sales of luxury cars and other vehicles not included under the Clunkers program.

Using traditional relationships between sales volumes of those vehicles and the types of vehicles sold under Cash for Clunkers, Edmunds.com projected what sales would normally have been during the Cash for Clunkers period and in the weeks after.

Edmunds.com's estimate of the ultimate sales increase generally matches what industry experts had thought, said George Pipas, a sales analyst with Ford Motor Co (F, Fortune 500). But that misses the point, he said.

"The whole purpose of the program was to provide some kind of catalyst to kick-start the economy," he said, "and by all accounts the extra production that was added this year was a boost to the economy."

Ford was one of the biggest proponents of the Cash for Clunkers program and several Ford models were among the top sellers under the program.

While auto sales in September were hurt because auto dealership inventories were drained of products by the program, sales this month are already back on track or better, Pipas said. "I think the October sales results will show Clunkers is behind us and there's no more payback or inventories issues."

Emunds.com's projection indicates that, without Cash for Clunkers, October's sales increase would be even higher.

Do you have a job because of the $787 billion stimulus package? We want to hear from people whose jobs have been created or saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Please e-mail your stories to CNNMoney.com and you could be part of an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. To top of page

First Published: October 28, 2009: 4:52 PM ET

via money.cnn.com

"A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com." WOW!!! What a success!! Now let's apply this to healthcare and all of our problems will be solved (except for the national debt, a viable healthcare system, etc.)

Posted via web from conservativedynamics's posterous

Posted by Corey Freeman at 17:06 0 comments

House health-bill event closed to public - the liberal transparency I have come to expect

By Kara Rowland

House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health-care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West side of the Capitol.

The audience at the crowded press conference included Hill staffers, union workers, health care providers and students, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who thanked them for attending.

Mrs. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders announced the chamber's long-awaited version of a health care overhaul, which would expand insurance coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans, costing less than $900 billion over 10 years.

The West side of the Capitol — the area where President Barack Obama was inaugurated — is traditionally open to the public. But the entrances were blocked off Thursday morning by metal fences, with Capitol police officers standing next to staff members holding clipboards with lists of approved attendees.

Reporters with press badges were able to get in.

TWT RELATED STORIES:
• House Democrats deliver health reform plan
• Obama asks small businesses to back health reform
• Geithner: Plan won't lead to more bailouts
• Obama goes to Dover to receive U.S. dead

Democrats repeatedly touted the openness of the development of their health care bill, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called "the most deliberative, transparent and open process" he had seen in his career on Capitol Hill.

A video posted on YouTube by Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office depicted a Republican staffer attempting to attend the press conference and being turned away by a police officer.

• YouTube video: People being turned away from the health-care bill ceremony.

"Our event had more than 250 people present, primarily supporters, but also some protesters," said Doug Thornell, a spokesman for Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat and head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Our blended bill was posted online this morning. In contrast, the Republican event today was open only to credentialed media and GOP staffers. More importantly, it's been 134 days and they still haven't shown the American people their bill or pledged to post it online for 72 hours like we have."

Several protesters gathered outside of the fenced-in event. Near the beginning of Mrs. Pelosi's remarks, a man shouted on a megaphone that Democrats would "go to hell for this," to which she quipped: "Thank you, insurance companies of America."

Republicans held their event in the House television studio, a standard location for news conferences. Press gallery rules restrict access to members of Congress who have been invited to appear, and to their press secretaries.

via washingtontimes.com

For a party that came into power promising transparency this is what I expect. Interesting how it is the union leaders that have the invites and not the regular people who will be buried under an avalanche of regulations, taxes and wait times.

Posted via web from conservativedynamics's posterous

Posted by Corey Freeman at 17:03 0 comments

27 October 2009

Barney Frank: "We Are Trying On Every Front To Increase The Role Of Government"

via realclearpolitics.com

This is no surprise or new information. The only thing is that he is actually being honest for once about his intentions.

Posted via web from conservativedynamics's posterous

Posted by Corey Freeman at 19:57 0 comments
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