Salt Police, Pensions and Union Contracts

The FDA is launching a new initiative to limit the amount of salt in processed food.

The White House task force on the middle class is being used to initiate a government takeover of pensions.

President Obama signs an executive order restricting federal construction contracts to a small number of unionized firms.

 

1. FOOD

The FDA is launching a new initiative to limit the amount of salt in processed food.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Daniel Compton on why these extreme measures probably won’t improve Americans’ health.

A recent study by University of California, Davis nutritionists concludes that it may not even be possible to reduce salt intake through regulation.  The study shows that people are naturally inclined to regulate salt intake to physiologically determined levels by unconsciously selecting foods to meet their needs. [. . .] Given the findings of this study, it seems likely that regulation restricting sodium in foods would be ineffective because people would unconsciously adjust their diets to compensate. “

 

2. LABOR

The White House task force on the middle class is being used to initiate a government takeover of pensions.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Ivan Osorio on precedents for the pension bailout.

“Free-market advocates often accuse those on the Left of trying to turn America into France, but would follow a model even more bureaucratic and dysfunctional: Argentina, where the government of President Cristina Fernandez has seized pensions to pay for its profligacy. Kirchner seems to have learned little from her country’s epic economic decline during the 20th century, which was due largely to abysmal policies. For America to consider something even slightly similar today is terrifying.”

 

3. LABOR

President Obama signs an executive order restricting federal construction contracts to a small number of unionized firms.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Counsel Hans Bader on why this is an example of the overreach of big labor.

“Taxpayers will pay billions more due to an executive order signed by President Obama that effectively restricts federal construction contracts to the minority of construction firms whose workers are unionized.  That will encourage them to jack up their prices, by shielding them from having to compete with lower bids from non-union construction firms.”