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he Government was today accused of nutty nanny statism with its plan to ban junk food adverts on TV before 9pm and a total ban online.

Despite railing against the Nanny State in the past, Boris Johnson plans to bring in a sweeping ban on junk food adverts.

The proposal to curb the advertising of fatty foods was revealed in a briefing document that accompanied Tuesdays Queens Speech.

Matthew Lesh, head of research at libertarian think tank the Adam Smith Institute, said: The ad ban plan is nutty nanny statism. It will do nothing to reduce obesity while savagely striking at struggling hospitality businesses and hurting the public.

The measures will apply to a shockingly large array of foods. It will be illegal to advertise online British favourites like fish and chips, scotch eggs or even a Full English breakfast; takeaways would be unable to post images of their food online; descriptive words like delicious will be banned.

Thousands of restaurants, which have been kept alive thanks to online delivery, will no longer be able to advertise online to find new customers, hitting small businesses the hardest.

Advertising Association chief executive Stephen Woodford said they were dismayed at the Governments decision that will damage business and put jobs at risk.

He added: The Governments own evidence shows that such measures will be ineffective in tackling obesity. The country needs balanced, consistent and well-evidenced policy interventions that will make a positive difference.

Christopher Snowdon, from free-market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs told the Standard: There still is no satisfactory legal definition of junk food. The kind of products that will be banned from advertising are not the kind of things normal people consider to be unhealthy or consider to be junk. Its going to affect everybody from the largest corporations to the local bakery, the local wedding cake maker, the local sweet shop.

The Government really needs to - at the very least - water down these proposals to protect what is the countrys largest and most important industry. Its a huge infringement of their free speech basically. This is really the last thing business needs, particularly at the moment.

Firms with more than 250 employees will be forced to list calories onfood - although plans to include drinks were ditched.

A new incentive scheme called Fit Miles will look at paying people to eat better and exercise more.

He said people were being sold a pig in a poke that it will only affect large hamburger companies, adding: Its not, its going to affect thousands and thousands of businesses large and small.

The Prime Minister abandoned his very libertarian view on food choices after contracting Covid-19 and ending up in intensive care last year. He admitted he had been too fat and his weight was likely a factor in him needing ICU.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan brought in similar policies at City Hall by outlawing adverts showing food and drinks with high fat, salt and sugar on the Tube, Overground and bus network.

Britain is the second fattest European nation and obesity is thought to be factor that could have worsened the countrys death toll during the pandemic.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said the ban would be sensible and proportionate. Asked if it was possible to fine those who contravene the ban, he replied: Yes, were working with providers, were working with companies to make sure that this is something that can be done sensibly and proportionately.

Asked if a bakery selling cakes and pasties could not have an Instagram account, he replied: The consultation response will set out how we are going to do this sensibly and proportionately.

He said they would set out very clearly to businesses what would be required of them.

See original here:
Government accused of nutty nanny statism over junk food ad ban - Evening Standard

A user fee to raise money for roads and bridges that is based on the number of miles a truck travels is popular among policymakers but does not sit well with industry lobbyists.

Unlike taxes on gasoline or diesel, a fee based on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) gets much closer to capturing the externalities and to approximating the road maintenance cost of each driver, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent tax organization that has opposed increasing traditional taxes, such as fuel taxes.

Four states Kentucky, New Mexico, New York and Oregon are already levying a commercial truck VMT fee. At the federal level, a VMT tax on trucks could also be a substitute for existing taxes on trucks that are credited to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), the main source of money for maintaining roads and bridges.

In a 2019 study, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) pointed to three areas that would have to be addressed by lawmakers before a federal VMT tax on trucks could be rolled out:

Of the four states with truck VMT taxes, Kentucky charges a flat rate of about 3 cents per mile, and the other three charge rates that vary by trucks weight, ranging from about 1 to 29 cents per mile, according to CBO.

Because most trucking companies already track their vehicles, the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, argues that implementing a VMT tax on only commercial trucks would require overcoming fewer administrative and privacy hurdles than implementing such a tax on all vehicles.

However, putting a federal VMT fee in place would impose greater costs on the federal government and trucking companies than increasing existing taxes, CBO pointed out in its study.

A study published earlier this year by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) put a price tag on those costs: upwards of $20 billion.

The trucking industrys most powerful lobbying group, the American Trucking Associations (ATA), which favors raising fuel taxes to strengthen the HTF, has long been wary of a federal VMT tax particularly one that would apply only to trucks.

Testifying at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, ATA President and CEO Chris Spear warned not only of the high costs, but of problems with tracking the tax through an ELD. Federal regulatory requirements for these devices were designed to ensure an accurate record of hours driven, not the number of miles driven, Spear said. Nor do the requirements provide an ability to broadcast data to taxing authorities. Furthermore, most commercial vehicles 72% are not required to be equipped with recorders.

Spear also pointed out that even strong supporters of a VMT tax acknowledge that full implementation is still a decade away. Failure to provide interim funding for urgent surface transportation needs while these solutions are developed would be highly irresponsible.

Despite its proposal to raise taxes to pay for infrastructure, the Biden administration has publicly been open to user fees as well.

When U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-California, who represents a rural district in the northern part of the state, raised concerns in March at a congressional hearing that a VMT tax could disproportionately harm small truckers in his district, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg acknowledged the problem but did not dismiss the possibility of a VMT fee.

Whats really driving this is the awareness that as vehicles become more fuel-efficient or move off gasoline entirely we need to make sure that if were on a user fee system that theyre somehow paying in, Buttigieg testified.

The gas tax was the simplest way to have a user fee because we used to know for a fact that the more you drove, the more gas youd use. Now its not that simple. There are a lot of ways we can think about setting up [a VMT], whether its a rebate mechanism or a phase-in approach so that its not disproportionately hurting those who are already hard-hit.

Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.

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Can taxing trucks on miles traveled work? - FreightWaves

Gas prices and inflation shoot up, there is trouble in Iran, crime is increasing and we have commodity shortages, "economic malaise," problems at the border and lines at gas stations. Wow, that visit between Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter is starting to make sense. And, if you can believe it, music today is even worse than disco.

Things are trending so badly that even Jimmy Carter is starting to compare Joe Biden to Jimmy Carter. Geico should be running commercials saying: "You can save 15% by switching back to Trump."

When asked at the border by Fox News reporters why they are coming here, illegals say they want to "escape socialism" in despot-led countries like Venezuela. Obviously, border crossers are not keeping up with politics in America.

For the kids out there, Jimmy Carter was a nice, old-line Democrat who became president after a scoundrel (Nixon) was president. Then people realized that they had made a mistake. Right now I would happily trade a few mean tweets for $1.95 per gallon gas and lower taxes. And Trump has been quiet. Personally, I am starting to believe he is not going to release his tax returns.

Trump had great policies, but his brash personality wore on people. Still, he was a refreshing change. Trump was like being married to a nymphomaniac: fun for about a month.

Jimmy Carter was a devout Baptist; he did not chase women or drink. And he taught Trump something. You can be a one-term president, but that does not mean you can't continue to be a pain in the butt when you are out of office.

The economy boomed under Clinton and Trump. It did not under Carter and Obama. The economics lesson is clear to those paying attention: marital fidelity is not good for business.

Like Biden, Carter opposed busing, and, also like Biden, Carter now lectures the rest of us on race and calls us "racist." Nothing is better than two old men from slave states lecturing us on how to treat Blacks.

Like Carter, Biden wants to raise taxes that will hurt the economy. Tax increases are where the supposed "government of the people and by the people" stick it to the people to support their own big government.

Both Biden and Carter thought they could regulate citizens' behavior through dictates from a heavy-handed central government in D.C. Carter lowered the speed limits on highways to 55 mph while he flew around on jets and rode in limousines. Biden wants to outlaw menthol cigarettes. Wasn't that the type Obama smoked?

Carter thought he could tell Americans to turn their heat down and put on a sweater. Biden tells everyone to wear a mask unless you are already fully brainwashed by the left and/or support a 50% tax increase.

Like Jimmy Carter, Biden is old and living well. Lifelong politician Biden bikes, swims naked and watches what he eats. He takes care of himself, as is evidenced by his personal net worth.

I do like the comment that Carter made on "Meet the Depressed" with Chuck Todd. He says he does not send emails because the NSA sees them. I like his libertarian bent, but it is also probably because he does not know how to work a computer from Plains, Georgia.

Both Biden and Carter really felt that government had the answers to all our problems. They could tell us what to do, how to live and what to eat. I have a buddy who drinks, eats a cheeseburger a day, supports Republicans and drives a Hummer. I feel like maybe I am supposed to turn him in to the government.

Contact Ron Hart, a syndicated satirist, author and TV/radio commentator, at Ron@RonaldHart.com, or visit http://www.RonaldHart.com.

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Hart: Biden and Carter are two peanuts in the same shell game - Chattanooga Times Free Press

by Paul Moomjeanpaulmoomjean@yahoo.com

I was sitting in a cigar shop the other day, enjoying a stogie with a buddy I had not seen in over a year, when he looked at me and asked, What the hell is a Republican today?

Having been a former GOP member myself from 1999 to 2002 and labeling myself a libertarian conservative most of my life, I really couldnt tell him what a Republican is today. I just know Im not it at all.

Is it a member of a group of rioters led by a man in a bear suit who lives at home with his mother? Is it what Bill Maher once said, old white men taking care of my money? Or is it some balance of both? Recently Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney have been facing backlash for holding the line against the banned-from-social media and former President Donald Trump, causing a series of hot mic drops and corporate booing. Yet in a conservative world with no balanced common sense, the country doesnt look to have another voice in the Congress unless it wears a bear outfit.

Right now, Cheney is at war with her own party. On May 5 she tweeted: History is watching us. We must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution or join Trumps crusade to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election, with all the consequences that might have.

This set off the degenerates of the party, and they are looking to remove her from any form of power, including a May 2021 conference where she would be the third-highest-ranking GOP member. Remember, this is the daughter of maybe the most powerful republican of our modern era, former Vice President Dick Cheney. To think she could be removed from a seat at the table because she believes what every state also does, that Joe Biden won the election fairly, shows how far the party has dropped.

Sadly, the GOP is now a party of violent, anti-voting-law-creating, gun-loving, conspiracy-theory nuts, hellbent on being cruel to transgender people, minority races and millennial and Gen Z snowflakes. Recently, the GOP had Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is Black, speak after Bidens address to the nation. He said America isnt racist, and while America isnt racist, its not entirely not racist. The talking points of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, two very privileged white males on Fox News, seem to be the official talking points of the new unhinged GOP. This is the party that has lost the war on abortion, gay marriage, gun rights and the nuclear family. Now they might prop up Caitlyn Jenner for governor of California, while systematically denying transgender people the respect they ask in pronoun assessment. And the reason the GOP lost everything is because they listened to Hannity and Carlson. And now the next wave is Ben Shapiro and Michael Knowles from Daily Wire. These people want ratings. To those still in the GOP, in the words of Malcom X, Youve been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled!

Conservatism has become angry, like an impotent Clint Eastwood movie character, upset that the world grew up without their permission. To think that characters like Carlson and Shapiro are upset Derek Chauvin is going to jail after being found guilty of murdering George Floyd is downright wrong and insincere. Theres no way they watched that video and saw Chauvin as the man in the right unless they are clearly racist (which I dont believe) or just fighting for noise in the YouTube and 24/7 news cycle vacuum.

Conservatism and the GOP have become the party of whiteness. Its no longer a party with any ideals. It simply wants white people mad and hopes that its 75 million members will one day be enough to take back the presidency.

Not everyone is doing this. Conservatives George Will, Michael Medved and Mitt Romney are trying to be the practical people. But with George Will leaving the GOP, Medved being fired from Salem Radio for not signing a Trump loyalty contract, and Mitt Romney being booed by Mormons in Utah recently, only to remind them he was their GOP nominee in 2012, the party looks bleak, sad and scary.

So what the hell is a Republican today? Hell if I know.

Read more:
PURPLE IS THE NEW PARTY | What is a Republican today? - Ventura County Reporter

Bellmead Family Dog Day

Bellmead Animal Control will have Family Dog Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Brame Park, between Oak Grove Drive and Hogan Lane.

The event will feature vendors, music, giveaways, lots of dogs and a microchip clinic.

Ladies Koinonia Reunion

Gods House of Prayer Church womens ministry will present Ladies Koinonia Reunion at noon Saturday at the McGregor Senior Center, 416 W. Second St.

For more information, call Patsy Reed at 254-339-4846.

NAACP justice series

Waco NAACP will present Who Let George Zimmerman Go? from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday.

The Zoom event is part of the groups criminal justice series. William Snowden, founder of The Juror Project, will explain the importance of showing up for jury duty, how some prosecutors try to eliminate jurors and the factors at play in removing diversity from juries.

The Zoom ID is 926 2800 0095. For more information, call 254-733-5261.

Community development class

First Baptist Woodway and Viento Fuerte churches will have a 10-hour class on Christian Community Development from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. May 21 and May 22 at The Venue, 101 Ritchie Road.

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Waco-area news briefs: Community development training focus of 10-hour course - Waco Tribune-Herald