House passes bill to ease Obama’s excessive menu labeling rules
Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act erases more nanny-state nonsense implemented through Obamacare.
President Trump is not the only one taking a giant eraser to Barack Obama’s legacy.
The House of Representatives has just passed a bill rescinding many of the former President’s restrictive menu labeling rules, and potentially providing enough flexibility so that restaurants won’t have to label the calories for every variation of items on their menus.
The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), passed, 266-157, with the support of 32 Democrats.
The legislation keeps business owners from having to provide calorie counts for every possible variation of a sandwich, salad or slice of pizza. Instead, sandwich shops and pizza chains could give a calorie range, base the calorie count on how the item is commonly ordered or list the number of calories per serving.
The bill also allows restaurants to post calorie information online instead of on a menu board inside a store if the majority of orders are placed online, and it provides a 90-day window for businesses to correct any violations.
The bill acts to replace the confusing compliance guidelines that have been offered by the Food and Drug Administration, to translate the regulations promulgated when the “Affordable Care Act” was enacted.
McMorris Rodgers called the calorie rule, which originated in the Affordable Care Act, one of the “most burdensome rules in the Obama administration.”
“Under the current rule, every deli, salad bar offering, every possible pizza combination, will have to be calculated, and their calorie count displayed on physical menus,” she said prior to the vote. “Last week I was home in Spokane, visited my fresh basket, this newly opened grocery store is also a great place to eat lunch, with fresh local options and made-to-order food. This rule would mean new physical signage every time this locally owned grocer changes the options they offer, which is just about every day.”
Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg (R) reviewed the challenges businesses faced trying to comply with the onerous regulations.
Pizza makers have been hard-hit, and have been pressing for more practical rules for supplying the required information.
They say that because many pizza chains receive a majority of their orders from the internet or over the phone for delivery, rather than in the physical store, they should be able to provide the mandated nutrition information on their websites instead of spending money on new or updated menu boards to install in stores.
It is good to see another Obamacare requirement being chipped away, and the fact that Democrats voted to erase these rules is the pepperoni on the pizza of my political news today.
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The left feinting with b.s. about food with one hand, while robbing the nation blind with the other. (The dimmis GOPe has their hands out for their crumbs.) They even went so far as to march out the Beast of Obama.
Btw, if anyone has not see the carnage in terrorist truck attack in Nice, France uncensored, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2OCKmrufU8&list=PLELb4wulw4mcQq9Gx89PlUTPUP_eaLpzx
France is now 30 percent Muslim. It’s past the tipping point: France is done. We need to worry about their stockpile of nukes.
France had a Muslim population of about 5.7 million Muslims, nine percent (almost double the European average) of the French population as of mid-2016. Cities are the location of this population with Marseille, with as much as 40% Muslim, being the cty with the highest Muslim population (and is cited as being the most dangerous city in Europe). Perhaps that 30% was from a city (Marseille had a low estimate of 30%)?
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/29/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/214086/french-city-40-muslim-population-most-dangerous-daniel-greenfield
We don’t need no stinkin’ Nannies!
Nannies are for Obama, Hillary, Chuckie, Pelosi and those other elitist 1 Per-Centers.
Congress passes a law saying labels don’t have to be completely comprehensive. They don’t take away the need for labels (which I don’t remember being one of the government powers enumerated by the Constitution) and somehow it’s supposed to be some kind of victory.
There is no hope.
As many have commented before, the Republicans are taking us to the same place as the Democrats, only making the trip slower.
That’s why patriotic, non-brainwashed Americans want to get rid of the GOPe RINOS as much as the Dem-old-craps!
See, this never happened in my reality. First time the Ctrl-Left started telling everyone what we were allowed to think and do, we pulled them out into the streets and shot them dead.
They ought to be abolishing crap like this in its entirety, rather than simply tinkering around the edges.
Typical RINO crap.
D’s expand the power and scope of the Federal Govt in ways the RINO’s wouldn’t, but once they’ve done it the RINO’s think its their job to make it work slightly better.
We send them there to repeal stuff like this – in its entirety. Including disbanding entire govt agencies that exist only to impose this type of expensive BS on us. But, they never do. They don’t even try.
” But, they never do. They don’t even try….”
What’s the mystery? – They’re paid not to ‘do’ or ‘try.’ That’s what being paid-off is all about.
’60 MINUTES’ EXPOSES PELOSI, BOEHNER CORRUPTION
http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2011/11/14/60-minutes-exposes-pelosi-corruption
Corruption Watch: John Boehner’s Abramoff Connection
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/corruption-watch-john-boehners-abramoff-connection/73396/
Judicial Watch:
Weekly Update: DC’s Most Corrupt (first on the list: boehner)
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)
CIA Director John Brennan
Senator Saxby Chambliss
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Attorney General Eric Holder
Former IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller / Former IRS Official Lois Lerner
Former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano
President Barack Obama
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)
Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
Dishonorable Mentions for 2013 include:
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) / Incoming Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D)
Former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
National Security Adviser Susan Rice
https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/weekly-updates/weekly-update-dcs-most-corrupt/
Flashback: Boehner hands out tobacco lobby checks on House floor
https://bulletin.represent.us/boehner-tobacco-lobby-checks/
Like a broken clock, Rolling Stone got a story right:
“The Crying Shame of John Boehner”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105
Corrupt John Boehner Conspires With Foreigners Against America’s Best Interests
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/07/corrupt-john-boehner-conspires-foreigners-americas-interests.html
Boehner to House GOP: Ryan pick ‘validated’ our work
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/248715-boehner-tells-house-gop-that-ryan-pick-validated-their-work
Don’t expect Mitch McConnell to defend the American republic
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/11/mitch-mcconnell-republican-party-trump-russia
Elaine Chao, wife of Mitch McConnell, busted for financial corruption scandal
http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/chao-trump-scandal/5207/
How Mitch McConnell Fights To Keep DC Corrupt
http://www.amerika.org/politics/how-mitch-mcconnell-fights-to-keep-dc-corrupt/
BRAVO!
BRAVO!
More postings such as this please!
And the R’s fall into the trap. Again.
The D’s impose the O-care disaster on the country (with a bit of help from traitors on the SC), then bitch up a storm when the R’s seem uninterested in doing the work of actually hammering it into something which almost works. So the R’s cave, as usual.
The GOP continues to be the party of failure.
As by now they should understand the routine, it isn’t that they fall into a trap but rather that they intend to “fix” the Democrat’s normal failure to make their Socialist crap work.
Imagine that, making life easier for business. It will never catch on I tell you!!
And stop your whining you little beeeeetches! I bet 99.99% of you cry babies didn’t even know this was a thing before youbread this article.
I don’t have strong opinions on the subject matter of this either way, but I can see a couple of ways that the way this is described as written can be abused.
Ex.: Pizza Hut basically uses an “online” ordering system now, and McDonalds is reviewing a “kiosk” system for the entries of their orders. If you have to access an online ordering system from inside the restaurant to place your order, does that count as ordering at the restaurant or ordering online?
Does this mean that any restaurant that wants to stop posting its nutritional information simply needs to move to a kiosk ordering format and include the info as an available link?
Why should that be a problem?
It’s not a problem in and of itself.
It’s more the law of unintended consequences rearing up and biting the statute/rule writers in the ass, because it drives a business-design concept that eliminates entry level employees (the order takers).
The legislature, through the design of their “fix” to the regulations requiring disclosure is potentially causing a employment-outcome affecting response, which I’m almost certain that they did NOT intend.
Is obesity a national problem? Iffy – considering that the industry chopped the “normal” BMI cap twice in my lifetime, putting it now at 25. If you keep redefining the problem downward, you never solve the problem – but you can sure milk an industry!
Are calories the driver of this redefined obesity? Iffy – it appears from more current research that carbohydrates are more of a weight factor than calories. Plus, all new research gets “the sky is falling!!!” treatment, so it’s not all that convincing, anyway.
Is it the responsibility of the food industry to provide calorie counts for their products? To the extent of consumer demand – yes; to the extent of government diktat – iffy. Not all national problems require a federal solution.
This is the way things in general are going to go until we can get Congress to look at every line item in the budget and ask “Why is this at the Federal level at all? What do we bring that the States cannot or should not?” Since that ain’t happening any time soon, I don’t have a lot of hope for any real government reform, the content of this article notwithstanding.
Did you know that the Federal Government’s Money Penalties for Food Companies are so High…….
That the food companies always make certain that contents of food containers are always ABOVE the stated ounces, pounds, etc. on the packaging?
That pizza looks really good.
There is nothing wrong with requiring disclosure of the ingredients in any prepared or processed food. This allows customers to avoid prepared foods which may contain ingredients to which they may be allergic or which may violate their religious dietary restrictions. However, requiring caloric content to be disclosed is stupid. In the first place, in a hand prepared dish, it is almost impossible to estimate the caloric content with any accuracy. Get a little extra cheese on your pizza and the calories go up. A little less and they go down. If caloric intake is of importance to a person, then that person should prepare his or her own meals so he or she will know how many calories they are taking in.
The problem here is the existence of a regulatory bureaucracy with the power to promulgate regulations with the force of law. This is the problem that needs to be dealt with. Everything in the country is bogged down with tens of thousands of expensive, counterproductive, nonsensical regulations produced by hundreds of agencies that don’t really understand the workings of what they regulate — and put out an endless stream of bad and stupid law to make themselves look productive, and justify their existence. Most of them shouldn’t exist, and those that should, shouldn’t have the power to make law.
Gotta disagree with some of the vehement comments here. The rule, as originally written, was an Obama over-reach of the ‘You Didn’t Build That’ genre. The basic notion of letting people know what they’re buying is a good one, and did need to be driven by legislation. There were nearly zero providers who posted the info, probably because fatties would clear out and they’re volume buyers. That’s my theory today at least ;-).
Personally, now that I’m disabled and am forced down from 8 weight or cardio per week to maybe 8 per month at 1/3 the output, etc, I need to know what’s on my plate. An eyeball guess is useless, it can be 2 or 300% wrong. One typical restaurant meal is now enough food for one and a half full days, iow it’s more than FOUR meals worth for me now. In many cases, a small dish you’d think is half a meal is really two.
” in a hand prepared dish, it is almost impossible to estimate the caloric content with any accuracy”
Bullsht!
1. Restaurants are a business, not Mom’s kitchen. They use portion control, because every ounce of stuff costs money!
2. They post the average. One day, you may get ounce extra cheese free of charge – that’s a whole 75 cals on a 2000 cal pizza.
“If caloric intake is of importance to a person, then that person should prepare his or her own meals”
This sounds about like ‘We should not be spending $$ on those ramps at the end of every sidewalk. If you’re in a wheelchair, stay in your nursing home and don’t roll your ugly self around town.’
That sorta thing gives us conservatives a bad name, it’s just the flip side of the leftist FU mentality, wearing different clothes.
Gee, how on earth did dieters ever manage before Uncle Nanny Sam decided it was necessary to mandate caloric content on food? Oh, yeah, those quaint things called “books.” They even had something called a “pocket calorie guide.” I’ve got one if you’re really hard up, and believe it or not there are apps for your smart phone that will do the same thing. Some of them make things brain-dead simple: scan the barcode of whatever prepared food you’re buying, and bingo, there you have all the nutritional information you could possibly want.
As to judging quantities, it’s not rocket science in part because you’re dealing with averages anyhow. Rules of thumb are great, and can be used on the fly: a serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards, a serving of rice/pasta is the size of your fist, a quarter cup of dried fruit/nuts is the size of a large egg, and so on.
Of course, this is all presupposing that “calories in, calories out” is the supreme model for successful weight loss. But that’s a story for another day.
The federal government interferes in countless ways in our daily lives, and this type of stuff is a prime example. Enough of this intrusion. If it’s not providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, or securing the blessings of LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity, axe it. The government has no business monkeying around with it.
@nordic_prince
Restaurant food never comes with a barcode. People into healthy eating rarely buy food that comes in a can or a box, there’s no barcode on broccoli, beef bones or beans.
Having the data to know what you eat is a good thing, here’s an example: I was at a bar that had ‘light snacks’ – sammiches’n stuff, those little plates had about 1000 cal, 2-3x a guess-by-eye number. There was exactly one item under 500, so I got that. Those calorie counts helped me out quite a bit on that occasion, and considering that the bar is part of a nationwide chain which is in turn owned by a $100 billion entity, I don’t think that having the company food scientist pencil out the food content of 10 items is going to break them.
The Obama rule was bad one, the revised rule is a good one. Hard line Libertarians are in some ways like communists: rigid, doctrinaire and eventually break everything they touch.