September 01, 2008

Restricting the Free Market

Via Kevin Drum, I see that the Bush Administration has won it's legal battle to prevent a private cattle producer from testing 100% of their cows for mad cow disease (short blurb). The company wanted to certify their beef as 100% free of the disease so they could sell to Japan (which won't buy our beef, since the US beef herd is only spot-checked, which statistically means you could miss some), but now they can't do that (and they have to pay their lawyers - wanna guess if they'll be in business in a year?).

The Bush administration said "No" to this, arguing that it would damage the economic fortunes of the rest of the beef industry. Which beef would you buy - the safe stuff (slightly more expensive, since the tests costs money) or the untested stuff? We could let the free market sort it out. Isn't that what Republicans are supposed to believe?

I just can't muster any real outrage anymore.

Posted by baltar at September 1, 2008 01:43 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Corporate Bullshit | Corruption | Food | Politics | You Can't Make This Stuff Up


Comments

Yeah I put a little note up about this on Saturday. And anyone who thinks Republicans are free-market oriented is fact-impaired. They are pro-big business, not pro-free market (and yes, of course there are exceptions, but in general ...).

Posted by: Armand at September 1, 2008 02:43 PM | PERMALINK
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