03/30/10
 A recent example can be found tucked away in the controversial health care reform bill recently signed by President Obama. After months of debate about individual mandates, public options, health care for illegal immigrants, and parliamentary procedures like filibusters, deeming and reconciliation, there are still plenty of provisions in the new law that haven't received much press. One of them is a requirement that restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets print the calorie content of regular menu items on menus and signboards. According to a recent story in the New York Times, one reason this provision was uncontroversial is because the restaurant industry asked for it.
That's right, the National Restaurant Association wanted it.
Why would an industry lobbyist ask for federal regulations? Because chain restaurants were fighting a losing battle against state and local governments, ending with a hodgepodge of laws in different states. Rather than have different labeling laws in different jurisdictions, they wanted one uniform set of rules. According to Sue Hensley, a spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association, ''The association and the industry were supportive because consumers will see the same types of information in more than 200,000 restaurant locations across the country.''
Not everyone is thrilled, however. Libertarian and free-enterprise groups view it as an overreach of the federal government and a threat to personal liberty. They argue that consumers have the right to educate themselves or not on the food they eat, and that merchants should have the right to sell food to the blissfully ignorant. In their eyes it is the right of the individual to be as unhealthy as he/she likes.
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