Rand Paul: the federal government?s gone too far

[u-Bob]

Rand Paul introduced an amendment yesterday to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S.3187) that would disarm the FDA, and toughen up the mens rea component of many FDA prohibited acts, in an attempt to end armed raids on natural food stores and Amish farmers, and stop FDA censorship of truthful claims of dietary supplements.

Paul's statement introducing the amendment:

President, today I?m offering an amendment to the FDA. I?m troubled by images of armed agents raiding Amish farms and preventing them selling milk directly from the cow. I think we have bigger problems in our country than sending armed FDA agents into peaceful farmers? land and telling them they can?t sell milk directly from the cow.

My amendment has three parts. First, it attempts to stop the FDA?s overzealous regulations of vitamins, food and supplements by codifying the first amendment prohibition on prior restraint. What do I mean by that?

The first amendment says you can?t prevent speech, even commercial speech, in advance of the speech. You can?t tell cheerios that they can?t say there?s a health benefit to their Cheerios. Under our current FDA laws, FDA says if you want to market prune juice, you can?t say that it cures constipation.

You can?t make a health claim about a food supplement or about a vitamin, you can do it about a pharmaceutical, but you?re not allowed to do it about a health supplement.

I think this should change. There have been several court cases that show this goes against not only the spirit but the letter of the law of the First Amendment. So this amendment would change that.

This amendment would stop the FDA from censoring claims about curative, mitigative effects of dietary supplements. It would also stop the FDA from prohibiting distribution of scientific articles and publications regarding the role of nutrients in protecting against disease.

Despite four court orders condemning the practice as a violation of the First Amendment, the FDA continues to suppress consumers? right to be informed and to make informed choices by denying them this particular information. It?s time for Congress to put an end to FDA censorship.

Second, my amendment would disarm the FDA.

Now, some of you might be surprised the FDA is armed. Well, you shouldn?t be.

We have nearly 40 federal agencies that are armed. I?m not against having police, I?m not against the army, the military, the FBI, but I think bureaucrats don?t need to be carrying weapons and I think what we ought to do, is if there is a need for an armed policeman to be there, the FBI who are trained to do this should do it. But I don?t think it?s a good idea to be arming bureaucrats to go on the farm to, with arms, to stop people from selling milk from a cow.

I think we have too many armed federal agencies, and that we need to put an end to this. Criminal law seems to be increasing, increasingly is using a tool of our government bureaucracy to punish and control honest businessmen for simply attempting to make a living.

Historically the criminal law was intended to punish only the most horrible offenses that everyone agreed were inherently wrong or evil, offenses like rape, murder, theft, arson ? but now we?ve basically federalized thousands of activities and called them crimes.

If bureaucrats need to involve the police, let?s have them use the FBI, but I see no reason to have the FDA carrying weapons.

Today the criminal law is used to punish behavior such as even fishing without a permit, packaging a product incorrectly or shipping something with an improper label.

Simply said, the federal government?s gone too far.

The plain language of our Constitution specifies very few federal crimes. In fact, the Constitution originally only had four federal crimes and now we have thousands of federal crimes.

We?ve moved beyond the original intent of the Constitution. We don?t even know or have a complete list of all the federal crimes. It?s estimated there are over 4,000, but no one has an exact number.

Finally, my amendment will require adequate mens rea protection. In other words, when you have a crime, you?re supposed to prove the intent. People have to have intended to harm someone, it can?t be an honest mistake where a businessman or woman have broken a regulation and didn?t intend to harm someone. If you want to convict someone of a crime and put them in jail, it should be a mens rea requirement.

This is something we have had for hundreds of years, it comes out of our common-law tradition.

This amendment would fix this problem by strengthening the mens rea component of each of the prohibited acts and the FDA acts by including the words "knowing? and ?willful" before we address and accuse someone of a crime.

This I think would give protection to folks who are guilty of inadvertently guilty of breaking a regulation and would keep from overflowing our jails. We?ve got plenty of violent criminals without putting people in for honest breaches of regulations. If Congress is going to criminalize conduct at the federal level as it does with the FDA act, the least it can do have is have an adequate mens rea requirement. My amendment will attempt to do this.

It?s not that we won?t have rules at the federal level, but the rules ought to be reasonable. We ought to allow people to market vitamins. There?s no earthly reason why somebody who markets prune juice can?t advertise it helps with constipation.

We?ve gone too far, and we?ve abrogated the First Amendment and what we need to do is tell the FDA that the courts have ruled that the First Amendment does apply to commercial speech and the FDA has been overstepping their bounds.

It failed passage by a vote of 78-15.

[HushMoney]

of course.

[uno]

RandPaulol.

[epitome]

Anyone have video of armed raids of natural food stores and Amish markets?

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by epitome

Anyone have video of armed raids of natural food stores and Amish markets?

Do the Amish use cameras?
http://reason.com/blog/2011/05/16/ra...n-amish-farmer

[sandman!]

Originally Posted by epitome

Anyone have video of armed raids of natural food stores and Amish markets?

[DWB]

Originally Posted by epitome

Anyone have video of armed raids of natural food stores and Amish markets?

All video confiscated.

Enjoy the future of your country. Lookin' good so far.

[sperbonzo]

Originally Posted by epitome

Anyone have video of armed raids of natural food stores and Amish markets?

Use Google and look at raw milk raids. There are TONS of examples of this and many similar things going on. Take a look at what happened to Gibson Guitars for instance!

The biggest problem is that we have come to a point where Federal agencies are creating "regulations" that act like laws with felony consequences, and there is not any legistlative oversight. No elected official votes on whether these should be laws or not, these agencies just put them into place and start enforcing them...


....it's a bad situation that is getting rapidly worse.



.

[epitome]

Everything points to the diary lobby pushing hard.

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=A04

This is why we need restricter limitations on lobbying.

[Due]

Originally Posted by sperbonzo

Use Google and look at raw milk raids. There are TONS of examples of this and many similar things going on. Take a look at what happened to Gibson Guitars for instance!

The biggest problem is that we have come to a point where Federal agencies are creating "regulations" that act like laws with felony consequences, and there is not any legistlative oversight. No elected official votes on whether these should be laws or not, these agencies just put them into place and start enforcing them...


....it's a bad situation that is getting rapidly worse.



.

Isn't that the definition of anarchy ? Wasn't this also one of the reasons afghanistan was invaded ?

[sperbonzo]

Originally Posted by Due

Isn't that the definition of anarchy ? Wasn't this also one of the reasons afghanistan was invaded ?

This is the exact opposite of anarchy. This is statism. And it will happen everywhere, inevitably, as people give their governments more and more power. They will tell their governments to protect them from "unfairness" and from "greed", etc, etc, etc.... Since government is the only entity that is given the power to use force "legally", it will become more and more tyrannical.



.

[L-Pink]

Focus on the shit being imported from China, from bacteria infested drywall to poison pet food.

.

[acrylix]

Originally Posted by epitome

Anyone have video of armed raids of natural food stores and Amish markets?

[directfiesta]

Raw milk is dangerous to your health ... but knock yourselves out ... and have a bit of my mercury fish ...

[acrylix]

Link for story on video above: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul...-raid-20100725

[BIGTYMER]

NOAA corrupt and packing heat?

Read up on Dan Rather Reports NOAA Law Enforcement Abuse.

[- Jesus Christ -]

If you expect the mens rea requirement to return you are making the false assumption that the legal system is about justice and not revenue.

We are LONG past the point where a significant number of people are going to need to fight and die to re-obtain "rights".

[sperbonzo]

Originally Posted by - Jesus Christ -

If you expect the mens rea requirement to return you are making the false assumption that the legal system is about justice and not revenue.

We are LONG past the point where a significant number of people are going to need to fight and die to re-obtain "rights".

So unfortunately true...



.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by directfiesta

Raw milk is dangerous to your health ... but knock yourselves out ... and have a bit of my mercury fish ...

no shit.. its a myth that getting it straight from the source is some how healthier.. not to mention it's about 1000 calories a glass.. who the fuck would drink that?

generally people who want the raw stuff have never been around cows, they aren't exactly pristine animals...

[Tom_PM]

FDA used to be thought of as a protection for consumers. It's probably more accurate to call it a gateway to credibility for your product (and muscle to crush competition?). In other words, it benefits powerful corps more than it does citizens.

How many billions are spent on studies to show some drug effectiveness, only to be discredited after people die or suffer some other problem linked directly to the drug? This is an ever more common occurence.

Commercials for drugs should be banned IMO. Never ask your doctor about a brand name drug! Just tell your doctor where it hurts. Do your own homework but remember you're being marketed SUPER hard and effectively with billions of ad dollars every day.

Simply dismantling the FDA and calling it done would be ridiculous. But restructuring where it's not corruptible sounds right. Chef Boyardee sure as fuck doesn't have a daily serving of vegetables in that can of processed horse shit, and sometimes a plant or herb DOES have benefits. Guess which one has more money? Yeah.

[baddog]

Originally Posted by directfiesta

Raw milk is dangerous to your health ... ...

Not exactly accurate, but if you plan on selling it to others, the buyers deserve the right to know that the raw milk they are purchasing is safe.