GOP, corporate America are using scare tactics

An old, tired scare tactic Republicans use to protect large corporations is to say that any government regulation is equivalent to socialism. The latest attacks are coming from the Tea Party and its big brother, the Republican Party, as they go after the food-safety bill with exaggerated statements like: “You're going to have 18,000 new food police going around inspecting everything from Girl Scout cookies to bake sales” (Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.).

What these scare tactics do is get people of modest means to carry the water for the Republicans' big-business donors.

Do we have a problem with food in the United States? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food-borne illnesses cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths each year at a cost of $152 billion. The bill for food safety will cost $1.5 billion over five years and Kingston wants to scale it back. He is doing a good job of protecting corporate interest while claiming to save us - the average American - money.

There is a term that we are much closer to than socialism, and that is plutocracy - government by the wealthy.

We all know the dangers of lead-based paints and can all feel better that it was banned from residences in 1978 by our government. Corporations knew the dangers of lead poisoning for decades before the ban.

If you want to be governed by corporations, vote for your favorite plutocracy candidate in the Republican party.

Bill Calloway

Cedar Rapids