CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

            I’ve received an official invitation from Congressman Jim Jordan to testify Tuesday, June 13 at 10 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building for the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust of the Committee on the Judiciary on the topic:  WHERE’S THE BEEF?  REGULATORY BARRIERS TO ENTRY AND COMPETITION IN MEAT PROCESSING.

            Originally conceived by Congressman Thomas Massie, the hearing “will explore how different aspects of government regulation create barriers to entry and expansion in the meat industry.  Among other issues, the hearing will touch on barriers to entry that keep small- and medium-sized businesses from effectively competing, which raises the price of meat for consumers.”

            Massie says anyone who can attend will add weight to the issue and help garner support for legislative action toward freedom.  Unfortunately, the current legislative agenda in recent years in this arena has been dominated by two issues:  antitrust (go after the big guys) and grants to help smaller abattoirs get started.

            My message will be simple:  give us freedom and all of us small folks will bring competition to the big guys, cutting them down to size.  Give us freedom and we don’t need any handouts that were stolen from others.  Grants are inherently evil.  Why should the taxes of a militant vegan be used to finance a slaughterhouse?  It’s not moral or right in any sense of the word.  That’s just one of the many problems with grants.

            But I digress.  Right now I’m not going to lobby for a specific cure; I think we will accomplish enough if we get the subcommittee to agree that liberty is a better option than additional government bureaucratic action.  The reason we are where we are is due to bureaucracy.  If that created the problem, we don’t solve the problem by creating more of what created the problem.  Isn’t that a kissing cousin to Einstein’s definition of insanity?—doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

            I’m definitely honored to be asked to be on this witness panel and pray I will be able to attractively explain the overburdensome inspection system.  I’ve always wanted to figure out how to speak like Jesus when He confronted the Pharisees with such erudite arguments that they turned and walked away, afraid to continue arguing.  I only have 5 minutes for my opening comments.  

            I’ve learned that the readers of this blog are some of the most creative, thoughtful people on the planet.  So I’m going to throw this out:

            If you could say only one or two sentence at this hearing, what would they be?