Recently, a reporter on my car radio announced that Congress had passed some important legislation with the name CALM. The letters stand for ‘Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation’; what a clever name! It’s about equivalent to the change in food stamp distribution to SNAP or ‘Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.’ The preceding acronym was adopted to remove the embarrassment for welfare recipients when they turned in their food stamps in exchange for groceries and other qualified items. Political correctness indeed!
The new CALM acronym to reduce the volume on broadcast advertising is probably meant to remove the stigma for those who can’t afford a ‘mute’ button on their TV remote control. Perhaps some of us can’t even afford a remote control. If that is the case, we need legislation to assure that all US citizens are given a government grant for a free TV remote control. I’m not sure whether a remote is a right or a privilege, but we all certainly deserve one to achieve equality.
The preceding paragraph is satirical, of course. But the more important concern is that when this nation has the plethora of problems that are facing each and all of us, our Congress is passing legislation to control commercial broadcast volume? Now, that is not satire, that is outrageous!
According to data based on government sources, regulations that have been promulgated since January 20, 2009 have a price tag of more than $488 billion. There have been $70 billion in costs of new regulations just in 2012.
The most prolific government agencies issuing regulations are Health & Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the American Action Forum (AAF), the time it would take to implement and enforce these regulations amounts to 1.58 billion hours.
In 2010, it is estimated that federal paperwork required 8.8 billion hours. With the addition of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (300 new regulations) and the Affordable Care Act (13,000 pages of regulations so far), another 1.5 billion hours will be added for a total of more than 10 billion hours by federal workers and contractors (aka Beltway Bandits).
At the hiring rate of 101 new federal employees daily since January 20, 2009, it is no wonder that 143,000 NEW employees receive regular federal payroll checks. There are now 2.2 million federal employees to absorb our tax contributions.
I cannot conclude this week’s column without commenting on the shocking, gruesome killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. There will be commentary from all wise, all-knowing experts about the root causes that provoke tragedies like Columbine, Virginia Tech and other massacres. All of these experts will probably be partly right but partly wrong. The latent causes of violence are somehow hidden in the DNA of evil minds, just as the warped minds of warmongers take the lives of innocent courageous men and women by proxy. Many will blame the guns, others will turn to God for support and solace; government will be blamed both for too much control and not enough control. Some of us may fear violating privacy rights while others may fear litigation by reporting suspicious activity or behavior. In the end the blame and punishment must be levied on those who are the cowardly perpetrators and their associates and enablers who could have reduced or prevented the tragedy from taking place.
We can all pray for the parents, siblings and other relatives of the slain victims and remember the pain these survivors will endure for all their days. May God Bless and help heal the wounds and suffering of this great nation.