John Block Reports from Washington

 Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

Governments at all levels, including city, state, and federal, just have this urge to regulate. They think they know what is best for all of us. Okay, we all know that as individuals, families, and business, we have shortcomings. We aren’t perfect. Sometimes we just can’t find the discipline to do the right thing. Sometimes, we can’t resist that second helping of potatoes. We want a donut with our coffee. We really crave that Big Mac.

Thank God the government is coming to the rescue. San Francisco is leading the way. We have an obesity problem and government-imposed taxes and restrictions can slim us down. No more “Happy Meals” for the kids at McDonald’s. Those toys with meals encourage the kids to eat too much. The San Francisco healthy meal legislation doesn’t stop there. It goes on to prohibit meals that get more than 35 percent of their total calories from fat, or more than 10 percent of their total calories from saturated fat, “except for fat contained in nuts, seeds, peanut butter, eggs, or cheese.

Total meal sodium must be limited to 640 milligrams, all qualified meals must contain ½ cup of fruit and ¾ cup of vegetables (whether you want them or not). A soda tax will be imposed to discourage customers from drinking Coca-Cola.

Do they really think this is going to fix our obesity problem? If this kind of micro-management was just coming out of San Francisco, it wouldn’t matter; we could just say, “well that’s San Francisco.” But it’s much broader. New York City, Chicago, and other cities want to tell us what to eat. Even the federal government is in the act of considering taxes on sodas and so-called junk food.

Where do we draw the line? The “nanny state” knows best. We are simply just incapable of managing our own lives.

Fortunately, I think the national anger at government regulation and taxes should put the brakes on this kind of action.

On a happy note, the Congress has gone home to campaign.

That brings to mind what Mark Twin once said: “No man’s life nor liberty are safe while the United States Congress is in session.”

I guess we are safe for awhile.

In closing, I would encourage you to access my website which archives my radio commentaries dating back 10 years and will go back 20 years when complete. Check on what I said back then. Go to www.johnblockreports.com.

Until next week, I am John Block in Washington.