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The Spectacle Blog
The Feds have changed baby crib standards. The older ones haven’t been shown to be unsafe. But that hasn’t stopped the Consumer Product Safety Commission from from forcing retailers to start tossing around 100,000 perfectly good cribs, since retrofitting them is not feasible economically.
Writes Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation:
An estimated 100,000 cribs could be headed to the trash - even though they’ve never been declared unsafe or a hazard to children.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had the opportunity to spare businesses of the expense at a special meeting two weeks ago. But the Democrat-led commission voted against extending the deadline. As a result, retailers stand to lose at least $32 million, according to the commission’s own estimates.
Commissioner Anne Northup, who argued for an extension, condemned the left’s assault on private enterprise in a 10-page statement on the controversy.
“I am truly at a loss to understand the motivation behind these actions,” Northup said. “At a time when small businesses are struggling to survive, this commission has refused to throw even a short lifeline to retailers that will now suffer at least tens of millions of dollars of losses.”
The real fun will occur over the next 18 months. Then commercial enterprises will have to replace perfectly safe cribs.
Families don’t have to junk their cribs—yet. But regulating cribs could open new regulatory vistas for the Obama administration. Just think of all the new jobs that could be created if the Obama administration established the National Crib Police to force old cribs off the market. It would be almost as good as getting rid of ATM machines!
View all comments (9) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/06/30/will-they-toss-out-the-babies
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Timothy L. Pennell| 6.30.11 @ 8:00AM
They don't need GUNS to control us. They will REGULATE us in to the GULAG.
Ask Cass Sunstein.
WL| 6.30.11 @ 10:09AM
Amen to that.
Bob| 6.30.11 @ 9:04AM
This was an Ant vs. Grasshopper situation.
One group representing small retailers -- the National Independent Nursery Furniture Retailers Association (the grasshoppers) -- wanted the extension because its members had failed to prepare for the new law by focusing on selling affected inventory before the deadline.
Another group representing small retailers -- the Baby Furniture Plus Association (the ants) -- was opposed to the extension because its members had focused on selling of affected inventory, and the extension would give a market advantage to those who had not prepared.
The ants prepared for winter, and the grasshoppers didn't.
Do we really want the government to show favoritism to the grasshoppers? That's what you're arguing for if you look at the facts.
Truth to Power| 6.30.11 @ 1:20PM
Nice metaphor. Obama regulations and governance are like winter. Nice. The ant in your metaphor most likely gives campaign donations to the Democratic Party for regulation changes that give them an advantage in the market place. The evil grasshopper didn't give money to the Democratic Party and his business mysteriously burns down in the middle of the night. I don't remember the corrupt patron in the original story. No metaphor is ever perfect.
Bob| 6.30.11 @ 3:01PM
Making baseless innuendos about campaign giving doesn't changes the facts: One group prepared for the law; the other didn't.
By the way, the Republican members of the commission voted for this rule. It passed 5-0 . Now the Republicans want to HURT the retailers who prepared by giving a last-minute reprieve to those who did not. They want to REWARD those companies who were too incompetent to use the six-months given them to prepare.
Truth to Power| 6.30.11 @ 4:23PM
It is winter Bob and the party is almost over. You are nothing more than an apologist for a bunch of crooks.
Bob| 6.30.11 @ 4:41PM
Attacking me doesn't change the facts either.
Have you considered| 6.30.11 @ 11:33AM
Per Article 1, Sec.9, : ""No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.""
I have often wondered where the prohibition of Ex Post Facto laws plays into these new regulations.
Everyone should be able to understand why this prohibition was put into place by our founders, but the spirit of this prohibition is violated with impunity.
Our republic as founded is gone :O(