'Gangsta' Government: Stringing Up Gibson Guitars

For my final installment on government regulation strangulation, here's what happens when you are not making contributions to Obama's re-election bid, when you're not bundling $500,000 in campaign "donations"  to the Democrat coffers:

Last August 24, without warning,  30 federal agents with guns and bulletproof vests stormed the Gibson guitar factories in Tennessee. They shut down production, sent workers home, seized boxes of raw materials and nearly 100 guitars, and ultimately cost our company $2 million to $3 million worth of products and lost productivity. Why? Because Gibson imported wood from India to make guitars in America.
Can you believe that? This was a SWAT team raid on an American business--this was a police raid with the government agents acting like they were storming the doors of murderers, drug dealers, or dangerous criminals instead of a respected guitar factory in Nashville, Tennessee.
Growing businesses face a number of hurdles in today's economy. For Gibson Guitar—a company that has created more than 580 American jobs in the last two years—the largest hurdle is the federal government.

The Aug. 24 raid was authorized under the Lacey Act. Originally enacted as a means to curb the poaching of endangered species, the law bans wildlife and plants from being imported if, according to the interpretation of federal bureaucrats, the importation violates a law in the country of origin.

The fingerboards of Gibson guitars are made with wood that is imported from India. The wood seized during the Aug. 24 raid, however, was from a Forest Stewardship Council-certified supplier, meaning the wood complies with FSC's rules requiring that it be harvested legally and in compliance with traditional and civil rights, among other protections. Indian authorities have provided sworn statements approving the shipment, and U.S. Customs allowed the shipment to pass through America's border to our factories.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to enforce its own interpretation of Indian law, arguing that because the fingerboards weren't finished in India, they were illegal exports. In effect, the agency is arguing that to be in compliance with the law, Gibson must outsource the jobs of finishing craftsmen in Tennessee.

In America alone, there are over 4,000 federal criminal offenses. Under the Lacey Act, for instance, citizens and business owners also need to know—and predict how the U.S. federal government will interpret—the laws of nearly 200 other countries on the globe as well.

Many business owners have inadvertently broken obscure and highly technical foreign laws, landing them in prison for things like importing lobster tails in plastic rather than cardboard packaging (the violation of that Honduran law earned one man an eight-year prison sentence). Cases like this make it clear that the justice system has strayed from its constitutional purpose: stopping the real bad guys from bringing harm.

Here's what Mr. Juszkiewicz is the CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp has to say about the government raid on his factory:

Policy makers must stop criminalizing capitalism. This begins by stopping the practice of creating new criminal offenses, or wielding obscure foreign laws, as a method of regulating businesses.

Especially in a bearish economy, entrepreneurs need to be able to operate without the fear that inadvertently breaking an obscure regulation or unknowingly violating a foreign statute could shut down their company and land them or their employees in jail.

These kinds of actions, enforcing these obscure and often unncessary regulations which stifle American business and sometimes force them to go overseas or go out-of-business, end up costing you the taxpayer over $200 billion dollars annually.

The Lacey Act is the product of environmentalist whackos who care more about endangered species  than about the livelihood of over 500 workers at Gibson's Nashville factory. If these Gibson employees lost their jobs because of burdensome regulation like the Lacey Act, it wouldn't change the thinking of these environmentalist crazies whose one goal is to destroy the U.S. economy and turn America into a 3rd world country because these environmentalists worship creatures like spotted owls, snail, fish, etc. rather than Almighty God who created us in His image. Their skewed view of the world and the order of creation has placed creatures on the top of the food chain and man at the very bottom.

What would you say if someone built a ballpark in your town and the Feds wouldn't let you use it?

For months now, I've wanted to do a series of posts on regulations. Do you realize how all these federal regulations are strangling our economy as well as raising the cost of doing business on a daily basis. 

For my first post of 3 in this series, I want you to consider the words of Congressman Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, who received a standing ovation from the other members of Congress when he spoke in the House of Representatives last Thursday. Now, this is so extraordinary because no applause is allowed for members of Congress.

Rep. Mike Kelly began his speech by holding up a stack of paper: 11,000 pages of lending requirements and he's on the warpath about how regulation is killing jobs in his district. 

Here's what fired Mike up with righteous anger:

Someone built a ballpark in his district, a Little League ballpark, and federal regulators came in and wouldn't open it. They wouldn't allow it to open. On the day they were going to play the first game, the little kids are all there about to have their first baseball game, and the federal regulators said, "Nope, you can't open it because the mirrors in the men's room were a quarter of an inch too low on the wall."

Here's what Kelly said on the floor of Congress:

KELLY: We renovated a ballpark in my hometown. A guy named Tom Bernadowski -- veteran -- [spent a] couple million dollars to renovate our ballpark. The day we were gonna open up, I got a call at the dealership. It said, "Mike, would you come down?" I said, "Why? What's going on?" He said, "We're having trouble with the occupancy permit." So I went down to see it. I said, "What's the problem?" He said, "Well, here. Come in the men's room. Let me show you what the problem is." I said, "We have 1,500 people want to come see the opening ball game tonight." "Yep, but we've got a major problem. You see the mirrors in the restroom are a quarter of an inch too low."

HOUSE: (smattering of laughter)

KELLY: "So you can't possibly open that ballpark!"

KELLY: So you want to know the price of regulation? You want to talk about the thousands and thousands of pages that we put on the back of the job creators? You want to talk about creating jobs in America? When you want to see a nation that doesn't want to participate but wants to dominate in the world market, then let them rise! Take the heavy boot off the throat of America's job creators and let them breathe!

HOUSE: (cheers and applause)

KELLY: The jobs we are talking about are not red jobs or blue jobs. They are red, white, and blue jobs. They are not Democrat jobs or Republican jobs or independent jobs or Libertarian jobs. They are American jobs!

KELLY: We are so out of touch with the American people. And you know what all this does? It adds layer after layer after layer of cost. And that cost is ultimately paid for by the American consumer. You want to have more revenues, then let the tide rise for all boats! Let us be able to not only survive, but to thrive. I urge all my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle. This is not a left or right issue. This is an American issue. I urge you to rise today and vote for HR-4078, and let's let America get back to work! With that, I yield back.

HOUSE: (cheers and applause)

ACTING SPEAKER: (banging gavel)

HOUSE: USA! USA!

ACTING SPEAKER: (banging gavel)

HOUSE: USA! USA!