I’m not sure what bothers me more, what Michelle Obama said on Monday during the bill signing for the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 or that Mike Huckabee supports the measure. POLITICO reported former Arkansas Governor Huckabee’s statement in support of the new law that allows the Federal government to regulate food served in public schools:
Reversing the childhood obesity epidemic in a single generation — as first lady Michelle Obama has called upon our nation to do — won’t be easy. … The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act makes great strides toward eliminating this threat to our children’s health.
I understand the Governor’s concern about childhood obesity. I share it, but there are other ways of approaching this other than more Federal government encroachment into an area it doesn’t belong. Let states or, better yet, local school boards decide this matter with input from parents. I have to wonder if the Governor would also agree with First Lady Obama’s statement that child nutrition can’t just be left up to parents?
His support of this bill if he decides to run for President again in 2012 will not curry favor with those who desire limited government. Other potential 2012 candidates, like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, see the law for what it is, “nanny state run amok.”
Update: I was challenged by a couple of commenters about the position of other candidates. Well for starters Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) voted no, you can see the House vote here where all but 17 of the Republican Caucus voted against this thing. I’ve not been able to find other statements by Republicans for or against other than Palin who said more here.
Interesting op/ed here and this one notes that the food stamp fund was raided in order to pay for this act.
2nd Update: Unrelated, but relevant to the discussion… there is this post from Dave Weigel which Governor Huckabee contradicts himself on Cap and Trade. One could say that it is spin from Weigel, but the video of a speech in which Huckabee supports it in 2007 is pretty damning (I mean that figuratively, not literally). Here’s the quote:
I also support cap and trade of carbon emissions. And I was disappointed that the Senate rejected a carbon counting system to measure the sources of emissions, because that would have been the first and the most important step toward implementing true cap and trade.
How did I miss that in 2008? And here is Governor Huckabee’s statement today:
In a recent internet post, a contributor makes the claim that I supported cap-and-trade in late 2007 while running for President.
To put it simply, that’s just not true.
If companies chose to participate voluntarily as part of their corporate policy, then fine. But I was clear that we could not force U.S. businesses to do what their Chinese counterparts refused to – and doing so would have been a serious job killer.
I understand this issue well, and I realize the potential damage that would occur if it passes because I was the chair of the 37 state-member Oil and Gas Compact Commission for 2 years. In fact, I led the state or Arkansas through the process of developing the Fayetteville Shale play of natural gas.
This kind of mandatory energy policy would have a horrible impact on this nation’s job market. I never did support and never would support it – period.
An obvious contradiction, now he certainly could have changed his position on cap and trade in the last three years, but to say he didn’t support it in 2007. The evidence seems to say otherwise. If he has an explanation for the video I’ll be happy to post that.