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Sunday, March 11, 2012

What ALEC De-Regulation Would Look Like!

In the 1997 American Legislative Exchange (ALEC) 24th Annual Meeting program one of the private sector members that is noted in the program is:
JR Simplot

In the same 1997 Annual Meeting program Bonnie Cooper – the then National ALEC Chair and Allan Auger of Coors Brewing the National Private Sector Chair signed a statement at the front of the program that said:
In the last few years our meetings have become increasingly important in maintaining the momentum of the conservative revolution. Across the country there is dissatisfaction with centralized government, arrogant bureaucracies and crippling regulations.

And in the same program – One of the workshop descriptions starts with this sentence:
The biggest threat to future growth in jobs and business in America is the increasing regulation and mandates placed on the business community.

In 1995 ALEC even suggested that the following commission be established;
ALEC’s model Joint Legislative Committee on Federal Mandates Act is designed to protect state sovereignty from federal encroachment by making the states Congressional delegation cognizant of the effect the actions of the federal government have at the state legislative level.

I could go on and on about ALEC’s obsession with getting rid of regulations on industry – so I won’t. 

But I wanted to remind you of that – before I refer you to an article by Jim Hightower that appeared on Common Dreams entitled The Tale of J.R. Simplot's Two-Headed Trout.


Snip:
These grotesque mutations led to calls for an independent agency to conduct a full scientific review of Simplot's 1,000-page study. At Sen. Barbara Boxer's request, this was done by the Fish and Wildlife Service, which issued a scathing report in January that bluntly branded the corporate study "biased." For example, Simplot systemically understated the deformity rate of baby fish in the creeks – it's not 20 percent that are deformed, but 70 percent.

This is what lack of regulations on a 1997 ALEC private sector member looks like in Idaho:

Another Snip:
Asked about this rather broad discrepancy, a Simplot vice-president could only grump that the Fish and Wildlife review was "totally outside the regulatory process." Well thank goodness for that! As another independent toxicology expert says, "I have seen lots of malformed baby fish, but never one with two heads. We need to be careful here."

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