No Montana Commonsense in the U.S. House

Here in Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) crafted a law to force food processing companies to provide country-of-origin labels on their meat. It's a commonsense, pro-consumer measure that simply gives people the information they deserve when deciding on their food choices. In Congress, though, anything "commonsense" or "pro-consumer" these days is usually overrun by piles of corporate money. And yesterday was no exception: the House voted down bipartisan legislation to enact a federal country-of-origin label law.

Hmmm...is there any doubt that the huge amount of food processing industry campaign cash given to Members of Congress had anything to do with this insulting vote? Of course not. Just look at Rep. Henry Bonilla (R), chairman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Committee. As one of the most corrupt, bought-off lawmakers in Congress, he has made a career out of sucking campaign cash out of the food processing industry that he regulates. Now, thanks to him, American consumers will continue to be denied basic information about what they are buying at the grocery store.