Istook’s Insights: Law and order collapsing? And, bans on Transfat, as Uncle Sam ails
Published: June 22nd, 2015
Headlines show that law and order could be collapsing:
Murders and shootings are up in big cities where police pulled back after accusations of racist law enforcement.
Homicides are up 20 percent in New York City.
Shootings have doubled in Baltimore.
Shouldn’t civil rights protesters aim some of their anger at the thugs who violate the rights of their victims?
Since 2010, 121 murders nationwide have been committed by illegal aliens set free instead of detained pending deportation.
Didn’t President Obama say immigration resources would be focused on dangerous people?
Instead, his officials are skipping several steps on checking whether someone is dangerous or not.
And Obama’s amnesty for illegal aliens extends to the employers who hire them. Enforcement is down to near nothing of the law against employing illegal aliens.
When you stop enforcing one law, people figure they don’t have to obey the other laws either.
And this: Artificial trans fats are being banned.
Trans fat occurs naturally in milk products and in meats like beef. Those are not restricted by the FDA’s new ban. Only the “artificial” trans fat is banned. But the grocers and restaurants began phasing those out years ago.
What will replace it, and how will it taste? The substitute could be something that itself gets banned years from now.
After all, trans fats came in vogue after the feds banned some saturated fats 30 years ago.
A better question is the FDA’s proper role. Trans fat may not be healthy but it’s not poison.
The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to decide whether things are safe, not whether they’re healthy. So watch out, next they’ll restrict sugar, salt, and caffeine.
If they can tell us what we cannot eat, then they can tell us what we must eat. So bring on the broccoli.
And wrapping up:
Does Uncle Sam have long to live?
Seriously ill patients often ask, “Doc, how long do I have?” Then they work on their bucket list.
Uncle Sam’s ailment isn’t physical, but it is fiscal.
The disease is enormous deficit spending.
No diet pill can get rid of an $18-trillion national debt. Worse are unfunded liabilities, like federal retirees and Medicare. Those total $127-trillion, which is over $1-million per taxpayer.
Uncle Sam’s fiscal doctor, the Congressional Budget Office, says our rising federal debt will choke off the economy within ten years. Government would tax or borrow such huge amounts that private investment would halt and our economy would start to die.
And 25 years from now our debt would be almost twice the size of the entire economy.
It’s as sure as death and taxes.
Uncle Sam has never learned that you just can’t fool the laws of economics.