Not Enough Meat? Rounds Proposes Weakening Food Safety Inspections

[TexasTowelie]

With Donald Trump doing his darnedest to self-fulfill the Republican prophecy that government doesn’t work, Republicans can’t very well propose serious government plans to address coronavirus and its economic impacts that would require the Executive Branch to perform effectively. Thus, they can only propose more deregulation and a race to the anarachic bottom.

Take, for instance, Senator Marion Michael Rounds’s proposal to address overblown concerns about the meat supply chain by eliminating some food safety inspections:

Speaking on the Greg Belfrage Show Thursday morning, Rounds said he supported easing restrictions that mandate meat inspected in a certain state cannot be sold across state lines.

“If you’ve got a state-inspected meat facility near Sioux Falls, why can’t they sell into Minnesota?” Rounds said. “If it’s safe enough for somebody in Sioux Falls, in South Dakota, why isn’t it safe enough for somebody in Minnesota?”

Rounds and eight other senators signed a letter Monday urging Senate leadership to include the bill in future coronavirus relief [Carter Woodiel, “Rounds: New Meat Inspection Rules Could Ease COVID-19 Strain,” KELO Radio, 2020.05.14].

Not new rules, KELO headline writer—fewer rules. Rounds has been beating this drum on reducing food safety inspections for the last couple years—and wait, what? Hasn’t gotten it done yet? Primary voters, would you like to think about that?

We heard this same old saw from Rounds and the GOP on health insurance—oh, gee, if we could just sell across state lines, everything would be fine! Eliminating state standards only leads to a race to the bottom, where South Dakota would roll back its inspection rules and use that deregulation as a recruiting ploy, inviting unscrupulous corporations to settle here, face minimal inspections, and subject the rest of the country to increased risk.

Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2020/05/15/not-enough-meat-rounds-proposes-weakening-food-safety-inspections/