Let’s get real, folks! How far do the feds have to mingle in our manure before we say enough is enough? How far do we have to slide down the slippery slope of socialism before the descent becomes irreversible? Before we say, “Welcome to Greece!”
With Mother’s Day right at our back, I want to address one of the most extreme overreaches by the federal government into American homes that I’ve seen in a long time. Then I want to call on my own 91-year-old mother, who was raised in rural Oklahoma and worked in cotton fields with her family during the Great Depression, to help set straight the rural farm and child labor record.
After a national decry by American farmers (and all of us who support them), the Obama administration has just shelved its plan to severely restrict family members under the age of 16 from working on family farms. But mark my words, as the feds often do, they’re merely regrouping to march again on those great American homesteads.
The very words of the Department of Labor, or DOL, “withdrawal” statement read: “…the Department of Labor is announcing today the withdrawal of the proposed rule dealing with children under the age of 16 who work in agricultural vocations. … To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration.”
“… not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration”?
So, until November 2012, right?
Kudos to the bipartisan group of 98 senators and members of the House who sent letters protesting to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis about this rule that would have severely limited teenagers and younger children from learning the family trade, not to mention undermine the very business fabric of rural America. It might sound legislatively crazy if it weren’t coming from one of the most overextended federal governments in the history of the U.S.
[…]
