The Food Police with Captain Michelle Obama!
Democrats are hoping to ram through at least 20 bills during the lame duck session after the mid-term election. Among these bills may be legislation that will result in the complete takeover of the food service industry in America.
Leading this effort is First Lady Michelle Obama who is now the new unelected Health Food Enforcer (HFE) for America. She's apparently going to be the Frank Nitti of the Al Capobama criminal enterprise. It's the Chicago Way. Al Capone would be proud of her – especially since President Obama's philosophical mentor was Saul Alinsky, a man who was a disciple of Chicago mobster Frank Nitti back in the 1930s. The baby mobsters don't fall far from the tree.
The First Lady is on a crusade to fight "childhood obesity" – but what she's actually after is the authority to tell everyone in America what they're going to eat and what's going to be served in restaurants and every school in the United States.
First Lady Obama told us before the election that her husband, Barack wasn't going to permit us to be lazy or complacent. Neither is she. At a UCLA speech in 2008, Michelle told the audience:
"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."
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"You have to stay at the seat at the table of democracy with a man like Barack Obama not just on Tuesday but in a year from now, in four years from now, in eight years from now, you will have to be engaged."
Michelle's Food Enforcer Plan
The Health Food Enforcer spoke recently before the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C. (September 13, 2010) where she laid out her ambitious plan to take away our freedom of choice in dining out.
In her speech, the "HFE" told the assembled that she wants to solve the childhood obesity problem in a generation by subsidizing grocery stores in underserved communities; by restricting what kinds of foods are available in schools; and by helping parents make "healthy decisions for their families." And, what happens if parents don't make what she determines to be healthy decisions? Will the child be removed from the home and placed in a gay foster care home?
Her main target in her speech, however, was directed at restaurant owners. She told them that they're responsible for one-third of the calories that children get each day.
The Health Food Enforcer told them: "I want to challenge every restaurant to offer healthy menu options and then provide them up front so that parents don't have to hunt around and read the small print to find an appropriately sized portion that doesn't contain levels – high levels of fat, salt and sugar."
But Michelle goes further. She doesn't want them to provide "just one token healthy option on the menu." She wants all of the menu items to be up to her standard of what is "healthy."
She is demanding these changes in incremental ways. For example, she wants restaurants to use wheat pasta instead of white pasta; she wants the amount of butter or cream cut back in recipes; she wants 1% or skim milk served.
But, there's more. The HFE wants healthy side items such as apple slices or carrots the default choice in a menu. Fries would have to be requested.
She also wants smaller portions served of all items on the menu.
Then, there's the evil marketing of restaurant products! According to the HFE, "It's not enough just to limit ads for foods that aren't healthy. It's also going to be critical to increase marketing for foods that are healthy."
What will this involve? Banning ads for hamburgers and fries and marketing fruit cups and bowls of romaine lettuce in ad campaigns?
According to the HFE, the government has already started requiring that chain restaurants provide calorie counts on their menus and menu boards.
In addition, she's using the federal government to work with schools and food supplies to offer more fruits and vegetables and to cut down fat, sugar and salt in school menus. She's also using the power of the federal government to work with mayors and local officials to "highlight restaurants that agree to serve smaller portions and promote more nutritious options." In other words, she's using the power of government to promote some restaurants at the expense of others in a community. Who gave her this right or this immense power?
Federal Legislation Ahead
Health Food Enforcer Michelle is banking on passage of federal legislation to impose her Fat Food Fatwa on all Americans.
One key bill is S. 3307, sponsored by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). This legislation, "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Of 2010" is a $4.5 billion dollar bill. It has been referred to the House for consideration. The House had its own version, H.R. 5504, which was an $8 billion dollar bill. The Senate version was going to take $2 billion from the food stamp program. It was to end a temporary boost in food stamp benefits that were to take place in 2013. Michelle supports S. 3307, but liberals in Congress are angry about taking money from food stamps to pay for Michelle's food agenda.
S. 3307 will, along with numerous government-funded projects, give the Secretary of Agriculture new powers to set standards for school meals, including both breakfast and lunch programs. It also requires schools to provide milk and potable water to students where meals are served. It will also give the Secretary the power to force food manufacturers to change their products to comply with whatever federal guidelines are set for school meals.
The power extends to "all food outside such [school meal] programs anywhere on school campuses during the school day, with the possible limited exemption of food sold at school fundraisers." Apparently, if the Department of Agriculture decides that soft drinks and candy bars are not good choices for children, it can force schools to remove these products from the campus.
But fear not. If the Baby Ruth candy bars disappear, they'll be replaced by baby carrots. Will this power also extend to banning candy bars in all vending machines?
Why should the federal government and Michelle Obama have this much power over our diets?
Fortunately, S. 3307 and H.R. 5504 have not been passed yet. There's still time during the lame duck session, however.
Welcome to Michelle's world – where everyone will eat carrots, exercise properly, and be forbidden to drink whole milk, taste real butter on a baked potato at a steak house, and children will be fed vegetable burgers by the Cafeteria lady and drink water with their meals.
Paula Deen could be driven out of Savannah if Michelle has her way. After all, nearly every recipe Deen has created starts with a stick of butter. Is this want we want – flavorless, but "healthy" food dictated by the First Lady?
Most of us go out to dine because we want food that actually tastes good. People don't line up around Paula Deen's restaurant hours ahead of time so they can munch on carrot sticks. We can eat carrot sticks at home – without being forced by the HFE to do so.
As a matter of fact, I think I'm going out tonight for a Big Mac, Supersized Fries, and a soft drink filled with sugar. And, then I'm going to Wendy's to have a large Frosty before soft serve ice cream is banned by the Health Food Enforcer.
Read More: The Traditional Values Coalition
