On the recordNovember 30, 2011
Madam Speaker, in 1 month, every home in America must be lit with the special $3, CFL government-approved lightbulb. The 75-cent incandescent lightbulb, Thomas Edison's greatest invention, is going to be banned by the Federal Government. The Federal Government's anti-consumer choice law leaves Americans no other option but to purchase and use a harmful mercury-filled product. Also, this new ban is an American job killer. The government's new ban ended a manufacturing industry that went back to the days of Thomas Edison and instead shipped most of those jobs overseas, primarily to China. Isn't that lovely. Where does the Federal Government have the constitutional authority to force anybody to buy anything, from health care insurance to a box of doughnuts or even a lightbulb? It's time for the bureaucrats to quit forcibly micromanaging America. Let Americans choose how to light their own homes. Otherwise, we will have to turn out the lights. The party is over--even for Thomas Edison's lightbulb. And that's just the way it is. ____________________
