They're like kids in an airplane cockpit. "Hey, let's do this!" "Hey, let's push these buttons!" They have no clue what they're doing, but boy is it fun. Until they crash the plane.Under pressure from farming advocates in rural communities, and following a report by The Daily Caller, the Obama administration withdrew a proposed rule Thursday that would have applied child labor laws to family farms.
Critics complained that the regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on farms owned by family members. The U.S. Department of Labor cited public outcry as the reason for withdrawing the rule.
“The decision to withdraw this rule — including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ — was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms,” the Department said in a press release Thursday evening. “To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration.”
Ah yes. Of course the 'parental exemption' would have made things OK, but since the public is too stupid to figure that out, we're just going to withdraw this enlightened legislation in its entirety, even though society must be having huge problems here. Of course, the Romney administration might follow up with something this stupid. Does all this make sense?
The rule would have dramatically changed what types of chores children under the age of 16 could perform on and around American farms. It would have prohibited them from working with tobacco, operating almost all types of power-driven equipment and being employed to work with raw farm materials.
“Prohibited places of employment would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions,” read a press release from last August.
“I am pleased to hear the Obama Administration is finally backing away from its absurd 85-page proposal to block youth from participating in family farm activities and ultimately undermine the very fabric of rural America, but I will continue working to ensure this overreaching proposal is completely and permanently put to rest,” said Sen. John Thune, Republican from South Dakota. “The Obama DOL’s youth farm labor rule is a perfect example of what happens when government gets too big.”
And has nothing to do but fix imaginary problems. Gotta protect their phoney baloney jobs, you know.
Parents and children who grew up on farms across the country told TheDC that the rule was overprotective and would have prevented kids from learning valuable skills at early ages.
But some folks born with a silver spoon in their mouths and who are totally disconnected from reality can't see things this way without help.
“Losing that work ethic — it’s so hard to pick this up later in life,” said Cherokee County, Kansas Farm Bureau president Jeff Clark. “There’s other ways to learn how to farm, but it’s so hard. You can learn so much more working on the farm when you’re 12, 13, 14 years old.”
Oh the horror! Work! Run for your lives!
Rep. Kristi Noem, Republican from South Dakota, also applauded the effort to
“I want to thank every farmer, rancher and young person who joined many of us in Congress to speak out against this proposal, which would have fundamentally changed the way folks have been farming and ranching for generations,” she said in a statement. “I continue to agree that safety on farms and ranches is imperative, but telling kids they can’t do 4-H or farm-related chores is not the answer.”
The Daily CallerÂ’s story about the proposed regulations quickly went viral on Wednesday, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers through Facebook, The Drudge Report and other online and social media platforms.
Thank God we have someone watching them. But I'm going to guess they won't learn a thing and will slink back to their dens and try to imagine other imaginary problems to solve and also try to figure out how to sneak these wonderful gems past the watchdogs.