OPINION:
Full-time dad and sometime Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged in an interview on CBS the seriousness of the baby formula shortage in the United States, then said it was more the capitalist system than federal regulators’ fault for the fiasco.
That’s almost as moronic as calling out roads as racist — another of Buttigieg’s fine Cabinet-member moments.
Buttigieg to CBS: Well, we’re doing all we can at the federal level to solve the baby formula crisis —“[b]ut fundamentally, we are here because a company was not able to guarantee that its plant was safe. And that plant has shut down.”
CBS to Buttigieg: “But that is the federal government’s job as regulators to help ensure safety of the plant …”
Buttigieg to CBS: Oh you silly, silly wabbit.
“As regulators, yes,” he said. “But let’s be very clear. This is a capitalist country. The government does not make baby formula, nor should it. Companies make formula.”
Thanks for the lesson, professor obvious. Now how ‘bout those starving babies?
“And one of those companies — a company which, by the way, seems to have 40% market share — messed up and is unable to confirm that a plant, a major plant, is safe and free of contamination,” he went on. “So the most important thing to do right ow, of course, is to get that plant in Michigan up and running safely. And that’s the work that’s going on between the company and the FDA.”
Cue Charlie Brown’s teacher.
Nothing like being lectured by a bureaucrat, is there?
Buttigieg seems to be saying that the free market has allowed this company to grow too large, and that if somebody, someone, some government agency had been allowed to limit the size a company was allowed to grow, and cap the market share a company was allowed to capture, then there wouldn’t be a baby formula shortage in the first place.
He also seems to be suggesting that government regulators have nothing — not a thing! — to do with a company’s ability to produce. As if regulation and control were not, well, regulation and control. Depends on what the word “is” is, after all.
CBS then dared to raise the dreaded “I” word — inflation — and remind that “inflation is one of the factors among many that has been blamed for months of problems with baby formula even before the recall in February,” as Breitbart reported.
“Right, but America has the productive capacity to create the baby formula we need,” Buttigieg said.
So why is the government importing formula from Europe?
“[T]hat’s because — again, we’ve got four companies making about 90% of the formula in this country which we should probably take a look at …”
And then he said: “[I]t’s — it’s basically a series of monopolies that have added up into enormous market concentration. By the way, this is an issue the president has been talking about in area after area after area, whether we’re talking about fertilizer … other things in our agriculture sector …”
Bingo.
There’s the nugget of deeper truth within the bureaucrat-speak.
The Joe Biden Administration is actively attacking the free market system in America by a) messaging and then b) regulation so as to open doors to overseas markets. Spread the wealth much?
America Last: It’s the policy of this administration.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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