Government coming after salt shakers

If you needed an example of why the federal government has grown too big and too intrusive, a perfect one was handed to you recently when the nannies in Washington announced the newest target for their wrath – Salt.

Those of you who keep up with the interference of the Food Nazis were not surprised by this since the subject has come up before. Nonetheless, the severity of their
recommendations caught even your humble editor off guard.

With its boundless knowledge and wisdom, the government now says that certain groups, including people over 51, African-Americans, diabetics, and others totaling half the US population should limit themselves to only half a teaspoon of salt per day, and the rest of us should keep it to only one teaspoon.

Salt is in food for the same reason it has always been in food – it tastes good. It also serves as a preservative and has for millennia. But besides that, it tastes good; it’s a
natural flavor enhancer.

The powers that be know this, but they still are mustering on. Even the Institute of Medicine says, according to one report, “it could take years for consumers to get used to the taste of a lower-salt diet.”

I personally don’t want to get used to bland, nasty food. Pass the salt and stay the heck out of my kitchen.

So why is this important to the government? Why do they care? Well for much the same reason as they would love to ban soft drinks and Happy Meals at McDonald’s – because it’s bad for us. Read the words of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who ties salt to the alleged fat crisis America is having:

“If we fail to get our arms around the obesity epidemic, especially in our children, we’re going to see a significant increase in health care costs over time.”
It’s always about the children.

To accomplish their goals, the government will target Big Food and try to twist corporate arms before getting really nasty. An article on FoxNews.com says: “The Food and Drug Administration has said it will pressure companies to take voluntary action before it moves to regulate salt intake.”

Like so many good government intentions, Secretary Vilsack claims that the new salt guidelines are aimed at preventing higher health care costs, but the secretary clearly is misinformed. President Obama and the Imperial Congress not long ago health care costs under control with last year’s big reform bill. Health care costs are going to go down, and it will soon be practically free. That’s what we were told, right? How could health care costs possibly be going up, unless of course they lied to us and really just wanted
to control every aspect of our existence? But I digress….

It is safe to say unequivocally that if our Founding Fathers had ever thought that the United States government would aim to regulate salt intake, they would have torn up the Declaration of Independence and surrendered to the British.

Congress needs to intervene in this mess before it gets too carried away and stop Agriculture Department and the Food & Drug Administration from implementing these guidelines. Besides, one would think the government has enough on its plate to ever worry about how much salt is on ours.

A tip of the hat…

Congratulations to our Clarendon Broncos for the amazing performance at the regional tournament and making the entire community proud of them. A trip to the state tournament has been a longtime coming, and everyone is excited about the game this week.

Even our neighbors in Hedley have gotten into the spirit of things. When the boys left Tuesday, the Hedley school gathered along US 287, sporting Bronco signs (the size of school buses) and several maroon T-shirts to help cheer their fellow Donley County folks on to victory. My favorite Hedley sign was for the “Bronchos” with green quotation marks around the H. Now that’s clever.

Good luck, guys! We know you’ll do us proud in Austin, and your hometown paper will be there for the action.

And speaking of Austin…

Check out the ad from the Clarendon College Foundation on page eight detailing the economic impact CC has on our area. Clearly, we all depend on the college, and any cut in state funds is going to have a negative impact on our community. Supporters of Clarendon College and our public schools need to make sure our elected representatives know that we want to preserve as much funding as possible for those institutions.

So while you’re in Austin this week and don’t have anything to do on Thursday afternoon or all day Friday because your sticking around for that championship game, pop by the State Capitol and say “hello” to Rep. Warren Chisum and Sen. Robert Duncan and just let them know that you appreciate them and that you support funding for the college and our schools. Capitol employees will gladly direct you to their offices, and your few minutes could make a big impact on our community.