CPSIA – Kids Don’t Lick ATV’s, Apparently. Who Knew?!

In today’s Desert Sun newspaper , John Paliwoda, Executive Director of the California Motorcycle Dealers Association, published an Op-Ed entitled “Note to Congress:  Kids don’t lick their ATVs”.  You’re kidding! A few salient take-aways: a.  Although ATVs and dirt bikes are now “banned hazardous materials” under the law because of trace levels of lead in metal parts like engine components, scientists agree that the risk of injury is “remote at best”.  Even the CPSC staff acknowledge this (in writing).  Mr. Paliwoda notes that “there have been no cases of lead poisoning documented from children riding youth model ATVs”.  No one seems to care, however. b.  The CPSC acknowledges that children face a ” far graver and more immediate risk ” by being exposed to adult-sized ATVs than exposure to lead in metal components in youth-model ATVs.  The very EXISTENCE of youth-model ATVs is the handiwork of the CPSC – so their ban reverses the safety gains earned by the Commission (work that actually saved lives).  This ban of youth-model ATVs under the CPSIA is part of a larger political objective to ban ATV use by kids altogether, as publicly admitted by Cindy Pelligrini of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Subterfuge as public policy?  Apparently.  Still, Mr. Paliwoda observes:  “The one thing that the government, ATV manufacturers, dealers and consumer groups all agree on is that the key to reducing injuries and fatalities to children riding ATVs is to keep riders younger than 16 off adult-size ATVs.”  Hmmm.  Job well done, Congress! c.  The manufacturing and sale of youth-model ATVs has been severely curtailed by the law despite the temporary stay protecting manufacturers and retailers.  Why?  The stay of enforcement “failed because many manufacturers and dealers are not comfortable selling youth model powersports vehicles while the ban is on the books.”  And the impact on the industry?  Mr. Paliwoda:  “[For] motorcycle dealers in California, [the CPSIA] has been devastating.” Sadly, Mr. Paliwoda’s reasoning and documentation will not likely sway any Dems.  Why?  Aren’t they listening?  No.  Don’t they care about data?  Nope.  Don’t they care about the creation of jobs in their districts?  Doesn’t seem like it.  What motivates them, then?  It’s certainly not children’s safety, by all appearances.  My best guess is that they want to be reelected as their top priority and feel that taking a reasoned stand to repair an idiotic law ostensibly “protecting” children is too politically dangerous to risk.  The public can’t be expected to actually think about the details, after all, and the rabid and equally uncomprehending media will certainly take the other side of any effort to bring relief to this suffocating law.  Data be damned. Or, you, your company, your market and your customers be damned. PASS ECADA AND END THE CPSIA CHARADE!

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CPSIA – Kids Don’t Lick ATV’s, Apparently. Who Knew?!

CPSIA – Fools in Charge

So happy to be so safe . . . and so unemployed! Today’s initial jobless claims report is yet ANOTHER report card on the dense and unthinking approach to economics implemented by Mr. Obama, Mr. Waxman and their Dem minions since the 2008 election.  A full three years after the economic cataclysm, and with a diminishing ability to blame this misfortune on someone else, the Dems stubbornly stick to their over-regulation agenda dooming Americans to safe, safe unemployment.  Can’t be too careful, you know. The CPSIA is the poster child for the Nanny State.  Mr. Obama told David Letterman on September 21, 2009 that the national problem he had to fix was that we had ” too little government, too little regulation “. Our industry has become a classic example of the cure being worse than the disease.  The story has been told again and again.  For instance, the CPSC heard (and promptly ignored) at its February 16th hearing from a representative of the bicycle industry, all the small bicycle manufacturers have left the children’s market and the big makes of bikes have sharply cut their product lines.  They also informed the CPSC that if the 100 ppm lead standard comes into force, the rest of the bikes will disappear from the market.  Quite a stimulus plan – you can imagine all the jobs this useful plan has created.  Other consequences is a general reduction in choice and availability in child-size bikes, which not only punishes families but also retailers. Do any of the numskulls running our safety apparatus have evidence that any child has EVER been poisoned by lead-in-substrate from a bike?  No, they don’t – because there is no evidence that any child was ever injured by lead-in-substrate anywhere using any product at any time.  Did you realize that one of the big problems in making a bike comply with this moronic law is that bikes use recycled steel for the frames – and the law provides that paint does not constitute a “barrier” over the steel.  The lead content of recycled steel is hard or impossible to consistently control at the levels dictated by the law.  The industry representative submitted testimony and evidence to the CPSC (consistent with evidence I have also supplied) showing that tests on the SAME PART in ten places yields ten different lead contents.  This law is killing jobs, products, companies and markets.  The evidence and data is right there for any thinking individual to read and consider.  The true believers stand in the way of rationality. Please send Mr. Waxman and Mr. Obama a thank you note for the weak, sinking economy.  They have CHOSEN this path of Nanny Statism to keep you “safe” although they really can’t demonstrate you were ever unsafe or that you needed this further protection.  If you are one of the unlucky 9.1% who can’t find a job, perhaps you will take some comfort in knowing that your Dem-led government made this choice for you.  Safe but unemployed – that’s what you need, what you want, what you got.  The best government money can buy . . . . The solution to fools in charge is to amend the CPSIA and restore sanity in safety administration.  PASS ECADA AND END THE CPSIA CHARADE!

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CPSIA – Fools in Charge

CPSIA – Nancy Nord Points Out the Unpleasant Truth

In the June 1st edition of the WSJ, Nancy Nord was featured in a Letter to the Editor about over-regulation.   Commissioner Nord has had a front seat for the baloney “effort” by the Obama Dems to “reduce” burdensome regulation and to eliminate “uneconomic” regulations.  As Ms. Nord points out, the CPSC has been an oasis of normalcy during this period of regulatory introspection.  Certainly no such deregulation project has been started at the CPSC.  As she notes, she has lost vote after vote requesting cost-benefit analysis for CPSIA and other regulations – all on a party line vote.  Yes, the Dems are voting AGAINST a cost-benefit analysis again and again on the CPSC Commission. It’s your money they are spending.  It’s your business that is crumpling under the burden of their over-reaching laws and rules.  There’s nothing we can do to stop it – except to vote ALL Democrats out of office, including the big guy.  Since they won’t play ball, this is their just desserts. Here is Nancy Nord’s letter: Administration Isn’t Serious About Regulatory Reform I read with interest Cass Sunstein’s assertion that federal agencies are working to eliminate excessively burdensome regulations (“21st-Century Regulation: An Update on the President’s Reforms,” op-ed, May 26). As a commissioner at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), I can attest that no such activity is happening at this agency. We certainly have not combed through our regulations to eliminate those that are “out-of-date, unnecessary, [or] excessively burdensome,” as he suggests is being done across the government. Instead, we are regulating at an unprecedented pace and have pretty much abandoned any efforts to weigh societal benefits from regulations with the costs imposed on the public. The CPSC is an independent regulatory agency and therefore, technically, it is not required to follow the president’s executive orders such as the one Mr. Sunstein refers to mandating a “cost-effective approach to regulation.” In past administrations, the agency has always followed the lead of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which Mr. Sunstein heads, in such matters. However, under this administration, we have ignored the recent direction to look for and eliminate burdensome regulations. We are just too busy putting out new regulations. I have repeatedly requested that the agency do cost-benefit analysis on our various regulations only to have that request voted down by my fellow commissioners on a party-line basis. Consequently, we are issuing regulations without having done the necessary work to understand the impact of our actions both on those being regulated and on the public. As a result we have imposed regulatory burdens and caused people to lose their livelihoods without a real payback in terms of safety. At the CPSC, common sense regulation doesn’t even get a head-nod. Nancy A. Nord Commissioner Consumer Product Safety Commission Washington

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CPSIA – Nancy Nord Points Out the Unpleasant Truth

CPSIA – He Was Always a Weiner

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is the latest politician caught doing naughty things (” The Incredible Shrinking Weiner “, ” Weiner Admits He Sent Lewd Photos; Vows Not to Resign “, etc.).  It is no small irony that the zesty Mr. Weiner blew hot and cold on the CPSIA. It’s one of his issues – he is a long-time member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and one of the people we are ostensibly supposed to BEG for help on the CPSIA.  On two occasions, he sent letters asking questions about this noxious law (July 7, 2010 and January 7, 2009) but never actually voted to help us.  His letters are evidence that he knew that there were serious problems affecting, among others, his constituents. Thus, we cannot nominate the Weinerman for the Hall of Fame, notwithstanding his apparent interest in our problems.  It is regrettably true that Mr. Weiner never actually DID anything for us other than send the letters.  As per the usual for EVERY SINGLE DEM, Weinerboy fell into line with the Waxmanis and refused to break ranks to support efforts to amend a law he himself questioned.  Now that’s great government!  At least he was never so heavily committed to our cause that it took time away from his hobbies.  Work-life balance is so important! Dare we hope to someday miss Mr. Weiner???

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CPSIA – He Was Always a Weiner

CPSIA – Status of CPSIA Amendment (ECADA)

Having delayed the mark-up of the CPSIA Amendment bill (ECADA), the House is out of session for the next week.  The timing for resumption of the consideration of this bill has not been released.  I think it is incumbent on us to make a fuss over this delay and to press our Congressional representatives to act to pass this law.  Other industry groups are pushing for the meager and surgical relief offered by this law – but the Dems continue to resist.  The Dems moan and groan as though ECADA guts the CPSIA, perhaps banking on a docile media to not challenge their characterization of a very balanced and frankly, rather undramatic bill.  In fact, I was just interviewed by a reporter whose opening question was why the controversy over a bill that changes so little about the CPSIA.  Good question. I have an explanation to offer you  – it’s just politics, pure and simple, 100% politics.  As previously noted, the Republicans were sensitive to the excesses of the law before it was passed.  Given that the CPSIA was passed in August 2008, as America headed to the polls en masse to overwhelmingly elect Mr. Obama as our President, all members of Congress (other than Rand Paul and three others) saw the wisdom of supporting this bill.  The political cost of opposition to the CPSIA was unbearable – as my own representative told me face-to-face in July 2008, even though the CPSIA was over-the-top, he had to vote for it, otherwise he would face election commercials accusing him of defending corporations over children’s safety.  He would not sacrifice his job over this vote.  He assured me that Congress usually goes too far in its bills, but would go back in 12-to-18 months to fix it.  Not in this case, apparently. So the Republicans, like the Democrats, preferred the safe route politically in the summer of 2008, but by all appearances, wanted to go back and fix the bill as predicted by my district’s representative.  To their credit, the Republicans have used the majority  power in the House restored in the 2010 midterm elections to reach out to both sides on this issue, as well as to the Dems, to find appropriate middle ground on this contentious issue.  [I have discussed these efforts in this space over the course of 2011.]  The new General Counsel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Gib Mullan, is the ex-General Counsel and ex-Director of Compliance and Field Operations at the CPSC, so let’s posit that he understands the law pretty well from all angles. Even with this new horsepower (intellectual and political), the Dems haven’t responded to the Republicans’ entreaties and resolutely won’t yield on any points.  They continue to fight ECADA tooth and nail. Why? It’s politics, just politics.  Drop any notion that the Dems care about you . . . or your employees . . . or your suppliers . . . or your dealers . . . . or the consumers, teachers, families or schools that want, need and use your products every day.   Jobs, schmobs.  The well-documented and negative consequences of the CPSIA on our markets and economy (not to mention the paltry or nonexistent acheivements of the law) are just not on the Dems’ radar. They only care about getting reelected – their concern is simply themselves.  As in 2008, the ECADA issue is tailor-made for political gains.  As far as I can tell, that’s too tempting a morsel to pass up, damn the consequences on the “little people”.  The Dems argue to the populace that anything that makes the world better for your business necessarily makes life worse for kids.  Zero sum.  It’s a stupid, nonsensical argument, but if you give it no thought, it might SOUND good.  The Dems know their position makes them look good to a dozing electorate and a gullible media, and makes the Republicans push a lot of chips into the center of the table to do the right thing for our country. The Dems are also catering to their power base, the consumerists.  The consumer groups have their own axes to grind. For one thing, if they give an inch here, some people might accuse them of being hypocrites.  After all, they have repeated the Big Lie (“There is no safe level of lead”) for so long that it would come as a shock and disappointment to their true believers if they conceded the (intentional) error of their bumper sticker slogan.  In addition, their budgets are paid for by trial lawyers.  If they give in, there will less money available for tort lawyers to suck out of the system. That won’t work, will it? So the Dems are opposing restoring sanity to the safety laws for entirely self-interested political reasons.  Not ONE Democrat has EVER broken with the Waxman line. They have stuck together like glue.  Hats off to them for being well-organized.  But the Dems should be ashamed of themselves as public citizens – by putting their own PERSONAL interests ahead of the country and its economic engine, they are taking the low road.  Throwing our company, our jobs, our products, the families and schools that need our products, throwing everyone under the bus all to save their own jobs – that’s contemptible.  This is your government at work. Please reach out to your Congressmen to express your outrage.  Send emails and faxes, and ask your friends, relatives and associates to do it, too. Let’s clog the inboxes with complaints.  It’s time to stand up for what’s right!

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CPSIA – Status of CPSIA Amendment (ECADA)

CPSIA – Illinois Keeps Its Priorities Straight: Meaningless Legislation

In a further triumph for populism and public waste, the bankrupt State of Illinois today passed a high priority change in the Lead Poisoning Prevention Act (LPPA) as previously disclosed in this space.  This Stop-The-Presses change in the law took priority over the incomplete deficit-ridden Illinois budget, Illinois’ failure to pay its bills, its unfunded pension liabilities estimated at $140 Billion and the failure of its recent 67% increase in income tax rates to make a dent in its financial problems.  Yes, the raging issue among the legislators was to fiddle with the meaningless and useless LPPA, better known for its utility on the stump looking for votes.  Thanks heavens for politicians!

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CPSIA – Illinois Keeps Its Priorities Straight: Meaningless Legislation

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