Why is the Government Proud of its Mistakes?

One of the things unique to government is the fact that they publicly and proudly celebrate their failures. In a tweet last week, the FDA celebrated the 10 year anniversary of FSMA, a law which was signed by President Obama and gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more power.

As we all know, it’s always a good thing when random ABC bureaucrats get more power over people’s lives.

*eyeroll*

The truth is, all FSMA does is make the lives of consumers harder and virtually nothing to reduce the risks of food-borne illnesses.

FSMA created a whole slew of extra and unnecessary verifications and certifications that increase the price to produce and import food in the United States.

Before FSMA was implemented, the CDC stated that damaged food caused about 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year.

Today, those numbers look almost identical.

So the government signed a useless law that cost taxpayers millions of dollars to enforce and is an unnecessary burden on small business owners? And then they had the gall to publicly celebrate the 10th anniversary of instituting said useless law?

Yes, that is exactly what they did.

And especially after the past year of useless and ineffective mandates that have been nothing but burdensome on small business owners, I’m not sure why we were surprised.

This, however, is not a new issue. Central planning and government overreach never have the desired results. People can almost always make a better decision for themselves and their businesses than a politician who has never worked in their industry.

It is a lesson that no matter how many regulations fail to create a positive change, the government often fails to acknowledge its mistakes. Politicians would rather celebrate their attempt to make a difference instead of taking actionable steps to decrease their burden on hardworking tax-payers.

Even if “adult” politicians can’t learn the lesson of how dangerous central planning is, your child can! In The Tuttle Twins and The Road to Surfdom, Ethan and Emily learn how damaging central planning and government overreach can be, even when it’s done with the best intentions.

Because no matter how much politicians try to tell us otherwise, their results matter more than their intentions do.

—Connor