Congressional Republicans: Pizza is a vegetable

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

It would be great if this critique were true, but it isn't. State and municipal governments are at least as 'corrupt' in that way as Congress, and frequently more so. They are poorly monitored by voters, compared to Congress. Local officials are also usually less informed and more dependent on information provided by lobbyists.

And municipalities are lobbied/bribed aplenty. e.g. Jefferson County.

Promoting decentralized inefficiency in our corruption.

[Aeson]

The kids are fat anyways, we should just start handing out cash allowances directly to the kids so they can choose their preferred method of getting fat.

[Aeson]

As for the benefits of my plan:

a) some kids will choose to buy drugs, thus reducing their caloric intake. (They may also buy other non-edible items like baseball cards and porn magazines.)
b) kids will be happier.
c) in 20 years none of them can blame us for making them eat the food they choose to fatten themselves up on.

The drawbacks:

[Tupac Shakur]

Personal Attack.

No ****.

[Tupac Shakur]

Possibly? I read it as "Congress is a single target and therefore more vulnerable".

Congress is probably less vulnerable than local governments to influence for the reasons you mention above. Congress' much greater power and nationwide writ make it a much more attractive target for lobbying efforts than local governments, however. If the food lobby gets Congress to say pizza is a vegetable, that's a huge win for them and worth a substantial investment. If they get Jefferson County to do so, no one outside Jefferson County gives a ****. You'd have to do the same in every county across the country just to match the impact of successfully lobbying Congress.

[Kuciwalker]

The flip side of that is that it is much more difficult and expensive to lobby Congress (again, I'm speaking relatively). I'm just not convinced that the balance of those two arguments favors local governments.

[Aeson]

Well if all the lobbiests are in one central location there's a higher chance that they can all be taken out in one swift blow (whether you are for or against this happening)

[Tupac Shakur]

The flip side of that is that it is much more difficult and expensive to lobby Congress (again, I'm speaking relatively).

I disagree. The cost-effectiveness of lobbying Congress is almost certainly much higher than that of lobbying local governments

[Kuciwalker]

More difficult and expensive in an absolute sense, not per unit gain. I'm claiming that it's not clear which has the better (worse) cost/benefit ratio for lobbyists, municipalities or Congress. At the margin they are presumably close or equal.

[Al B. Sure!]

Wait. Who here thinks the position taken by those Republicans alluded to in the article is correct with regards to nutrition? Who is fine with pizza and french fries for school lunches?

All this discussion about decentralizing decision-making weakening the power of lobbyists doesn't seem relevant to me. You're apparently assuming the food industry lobby, or whoever is pushing for junk food lunches, has a negative effect on nutrition. So if it's bad, why the hell are you not supporting federal nutritional guidelines in this respect?

It seems like a spineless cop-out, if not tacit approval of bad nutrition, akin to leaving gay marriage to states.

[Kuciwalker]

Who is fine with pizza and french fries for school lunches?

Me.

[Tupac Shakur]

More difficult and expensive in an absolute sense, not per unit gain. I'm claiming that it's not clear which has the better (worse) cost/benefit ratio for lobbyists, municipalities or Congress. At the margin they are presumably close or equal.

1. Why focus on absolute expense?

2. I think you're greatly underestimating the difficulty and expense of lobbying thousands of local governments all across the country. I suspect this would be much more expensive than lobbying Congress in absolute terms.

[Tupac Shakur]

All this discussion about decentralizing decision-making weakening the power of lobbyists doesn't seem relevant to me. You're apparently assuming the food industry lobby, or whoever is pushing for junk food lunches, has a negative effect on nutrition. So if it's bad, why the hell are you not supporting federal nutritional guidelines in this respect?

Because federal nutritional guidelines are clearly influenced by the food industry lobby? Jesus, use your ****ing brain for once, Albert.

[Al B. Sure!]

Because federal nutritional guidelines are clearly influenced by the food industry lobby? Jesus, use your ****ing brain for once, Albert.

And yet the food industry is apparently opposed to these particular guidelines...

[Tupac Shakur]

And they won.