Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, they get worse. Right around the corner is February 10, a major deadline for CPSIA compliance. Walter Olson writes in Fortune that the CPSIA, just the sort of high-minded government protectionism for which congressional Democrats are famous, has the potential to pointlessly drive thousands of small entrepreneurs — including thrift and consignment stores — out of business now. Their exit from the market place will drive up the cost of living for the most economically vulnerable members of society.
You can thank Henry Waxman and his Democrat cronies for fronting this monstrosity. You can thank nearly all of the Republicans for being stupid enough to go along for the ride. If only we could sue Congress for malpractice, the CPSIA would make a whale of a case.
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This also puts book publishers and bookstores out that target children. Each test on each book (binding separate, thread separate, glue separate, paper (even if same ream),–etc) is $100-400 per book. This threatens children’s education books to school books to school supplies to readers–antique and new. The American Association of Libraries is petitioning CPSCA to exempt books, but they clarified saying that book testing will remain intact.
Ron Paul was the only one who did not vote for this law.
Etsy crafters (moms who get income to send their children to daycare or private school or stay at home with little ones) are about to loose their livelihoods. Same goes for the Amish..we all know their wooden blocks handmade contain lethal amounts of phylates and lead. (tongue in cheek)
Gee no wonder CNN was in on the big fuss last year about Chinese products. The real goal was to destroy the FLDS ( http://fldscrafts.com ) and the Amish. Damn CNN and the MSM.
Joey
They will end up destroying themselves
Ron Paul was only the only member of the House who didn’t vote for the law, and he actually missed the final vote. 13 Senators voted against the first version. Three voted against the final version. They are Jim deMint (who fought very hard against it), John Kyl (I think he did more than just vote Nay as well), and Thomas Coburn.
Not only are these burdensome regulations redundant and expensive (if ten different crafters make something from the same batch of fabric from the same store/manufacturer, they have to pay for separate component tests for *each* component, such as fabric, thread, stuffying, embroidery floss, etc. And then test the final item again.
This is true for ALL products intended for the use of children 12 and under- books, shoes, socks, papers, notebooks, toys, laptops, bedding, baskets, blocks, dolls, CDs- regardless of whether the product has ever had any taint of lead before.
It’s a mess, and Waxman and Rush need to be held accountable for it.
Isn’t that taking the role of regulating “interstate commerce” a bit too far? I don’t think the founders intended for the Federal government to write laws that prohibit one from carving a wooden horse and giving it as a gift to your neighbor’s child.
Possibly it was the Chinese themselves along with big business that lobbied for this law — to crush the little guys. Big business is usually in favor of more regulation — it helps maintain their monopoly.