75-01-A2
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Consumer Protection[edit]
Transcript[edit]Why is the Consumer Protection Agency built like a basket of kittens? That's more than a riddle, it's a fact of life. I'll be right back. When you were young, did you ever have the experience of trying to carry a basket of kittens? One'd pop its head up and try to crawl over the side of the basket and while you were pushing him back down another one would pop up on the other side of the basket and it'd seem there were more heads than you had hands. Well, government programs or proposals for such programs are like that. Legislation is introduced in Congress by those who think all answers must come from government. When they're defeated, too many of us relax and think "Well that's that." But just like those kittens heads, they keep popping up, until they're eventually passed. Take the so-called Consumer Protection Agency Act, actually it would have created a big new federal government bureau, which would have the power to supersede all other government agencies, plus the power to take records and trade secrets from businesses and industries and make them public. The bill drew strong opposition from those on Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans alike, who don't like the idea of government playing Big Brother and who resent the idea of using consumerism to promote the notion that people are too dumb to buy a box of cornflakes without being cheated but are smart enough to choose protectors in government who can run their lives for them. The professional consumerists are really elitists, who think they know better than you do what's good for you. They fought hard for this bill, accusing its opponents of being against any kind of consumer protection, which of course wasn't true. Those congressmen who believe that you can make your own decisions, decided to filibuster the bill. Now the filibuster is a parliamentary tradition in the U.S. Senate. It's the process of taking and holding the floor for debate until you've talked the bill to death. Those on the other side may try three times to vote for cloture, that is a vote to cut off debate and end the filibuster. Now that's traditional, but in the case of the so-called consumer protection bill, cloture was defeated three times and then in an unprecedented break with tradition, they tried a fourth time and failed. But don't start a celebration. Like that basket of kittens this one will pop up again soon, maybe under a new title or even as an amendment to some necessary piece of legislation that everyone supports. It's a shame that Congress will have to go round and round again in this nonsense and it is nonsense. But much worse, it's as big a threat to our free economy as anything that's been proposed. Congress has the authority to change policies governing the practices of federal departments and agencies which have responsibility for protecting consumers. If there are shortcomings in these agencies Congress can correct them. To create a competing, overlapping new agency is just plain irresponsible. If you owned a store and found that one of its departments was below par, you'd consider changing management policies or personnel or prices, but you certainly wouldn't try to solve the problem by opening a store across the street to compete with yourself. Yet that's what the promoters of the Consumer Protection Agency were doing. So be ready to write your Congressman because it'll soon be time again to push the kittens back in the basket. The proponents of the Consumer Protection Agency are so optimistic they're going to try this next time for an even stronger bill. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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