Editorial: FDA Busts Amish Farmers; Are We Next?

I'm sure that I speak for a lot of people on this matter. I suggest that Barack Obama get his act together and get his FDA under control. It seems that the FDA spent one year and thousands of dollars of our taxpayer money investigating an Amish farm in Pennsylvania which was just trying to make an honest living selling milk to people. This is not the change that we voted for when we voted for him back in 2008.

Give me a break -- why isn't the government going after the real criminals? Let's just give an example of how the government is failing. Around here, there has been a lot of concern raised about the sale of K2, which is a marijuana synthetic. And that may just be the tip of the iceberg, seeing that there are versions such as K4 and several other variants. Yet it seems that Obama and certain advocates of a police state would rather drive mom and pop concerns out of business for the benefit of large corporations while letting the real criminals, those who would sell K2 and other such drugs to our children carry on.

Congressman Sam Graves in a recent news release rightly says that small businesses need new markets in order to compete. I think he should go farther -- I think Congressman Graves, along with Senator Roy Blunt and Senator Claire McCaskill have an obligation to blow the whistle anytime the government spends tens of thousands of our taxpayer dollars and spends one year of their valuable time going after mom and pop businesses and failing to go after the real criminals who would prey on our children. No matter where it happens. Because who knows -- we could be next. Nobody is safe in this day and age.

How would we feel if it were, say, Sheridan Grocery or Country Corners or Modern Day Veterans Bar & Grill who was next on the government's hit list of mom and pop businesses? Certain people in Washington seem to think that our present economic woes are a mental disease of some kind. We need a government who will use their common sense and facilitate people who are trying to make an honest living. We all agree that some rules are necessary for a society to function -- even Ron Paul would only cut the government by 50%. But certain rules that are appropriate for, say, Wal-Mart or Dollar General are not appropriate for mom and pop operations which are simply trying to make an honest living.

Let's suppose for the sake of the argument that the FDA rules in question were completely appropriate and necessary for public health reasons. That still does not justify the thuggish tactics of the FDA, who spent thousands and thousands of our taxpayer dollars and a whole year in undercover investigations treating an Amish family like terrorists or criminals instead of working with them to correct the problem. When the government engages in this sort of thuggery, this vindicates people like Ronald Reagan, who used to say that the worst words one could hear is, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." But when the government works with people like this Amish family to rectify the problem, then there is always a solution.