Food Safety Laws, Successful Car Companies: Spawn of Obama Socialism?

Obama Devil Symbol

Two more examples of Obama's successful implementation of good policy that benefits all Americans, or, conversely, a successful demonstration of his socialistic pathology that will lead to our collapse and doom.

First we have the news that the President signed into law the bipartisan food safety law. If theatrical political actress Palin had strong words for Michelle Obama's continued efforts to encourage American parents to feed their children healthier food, she should be appalled at this actual piece of real law. It's regulation pure and simple, but we doubt she will have the courage to buck the conventional wisdom of the three out of four senators who supported the bill.

The new law would:

—Increase inspections of U.S. and foreign food facilities; the riskiest U.S. facilities would be inspected every three years. The FDA rarely inspected most facilities and farms, visiting some about once a decade and others not at all.

—Allow the FDA to order the recall of tainted food. Previously, the agency could only negotiate with businesses for voluntary recalls.

—Impose new safety regulations on producers of the highest-risk fruits and vegetables.

(Bloomberg)

Is this socialism? Do we give Obama a thumbs up or down on this? Because it's really getting hard to determine when social welfare policies are really socialism. I suspect that when social conservatives do something inherently socialistic, it's good for America, but when a Democrat does it, it's well, you know, socialism right there in your face, taking your way of life.

Which leads us to an update on Obama's other socialist endeavor, the bailout of American auto companies. Just yesterday we had the news that all three firms were doing rather okay, and with yearly sales hitting some records. The news was good all around, save for perhaps Toyota.

Rising consumer confidence and retail spending bode well for car sales and may help boost 2011 industrywide sales, including heavy-duty trucks, to 13 million to 13.5 million vehicles, Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales operations, said today on a conference call.

Credit Eases

Banks are starting to lend more freely, giving buyers with weaker credit an opportunity to purchase new cars, he said. Subprime borrowers* account for about 5 percent of GM’s sales right now, he said.

(Bloomberg)

It should become increasingly clear to the public that some politicians who have talked about American jobs have done nothing to help the process, while others were doing the heavy lifting. Yes, it's a bailout and if we were concerned with balanced budgets and strict adherence to laissez faire capitalism, the car companies should have been allowed to fail. But if we are talking about deficits and debt, the very same people who vocalized against bailing out the auto industry or the banks, were quite willing to support a tax cut extension that rendered concerns over the national debt obsolete by contradiction. Thus to the extent we are not tackling the budget and deficits, and are trying to jump start the economy, keeping thousands of Americans at work via the auto companies and their derivative supply chains was the right thing to do.

Further, and this oft gets ignored (and more by the person on the street), the very ability of the car companies to enjoy this sudden bounty of American car lust is helped by banks, who are less locked down by credit concerns and who, thankfully, with the help of both Bush and Obama, still exist.

*(I know well one of those subprime buyers, who bought a vehicle via Carmax. It was very hard to get a loan given his credit score, and unless he pays more than his monthly payment he will ultimately be paying for two cars. But still, he bought a car, which kept him working and contributing to the economy. If he was not so annoyed he would probably thank that bank for their kindly exorbitant but economically wise interest rate.)