Nancy Pelosi CPSIA YouTube

I finally had a chance to watch one of the YouTube CPSIA videos. I started with one showing Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking to Congress, last July, just before the bill was signed into law.

I realize that I go into this already biased, having now fought CPSIA for more than 3 months (my hat is off to those who have been in the fight for even longer than that!).

Nancy wants to make sure that we realize that they are "A Congress for America's Children" (I lost track of how many times she said that.) I wonder how many of America's children would not agree with that assessment right about now? She also made sure to point out that "This bill is long overdue" (Why exactly is it long overdue? She didn't really answer that question, we just have to believe that it is.)

The bill has the "support of Community Groups that care about children". (So, let's see, by inference, those of us who are fighting CPSIA do not care about children...Sorry, Nancy, I have to strongly disagree with you on that!)

"...do something for America's children." (Why? Because it sounds good? Because it makes good publicity? Yes, I am beginning to agree with the other bloggers who make that point! This is not about 'doing good'...It is about 'sounding good'.)

"We have to depend on the Government to protect our children." (I had to rewind to make sure I heard that part correctly...No, I'm sorry, Nancy, I don't think that's the role of government. In fact, looking through my pocket Constitution I can't find that in the job description of government anywhere. Please let parents do their jobs, and go back to doing yours...The first Article of the Constitution, Section 8, has a really nice explanation of what that is, in case you've forgotten.)

Nancy sounds very distressed when she gets to her point about 45 million toys that were recalled the year before -- before they had written CPSIA we might add. Twice she asks, "What is a parent to do?" And of course, she has the answer -- more legislation!

"Dangerous toys should be an oxymoron." (I do agree with that, Nancy. But how many children were injured or killed from those 45 million "dangerous toys" that were recalled? None that I've been able to determine...And unfortunately, CPSIA deals with so much more than those "dangerous toys"...since it was written to include ALL Children's Products! Let's go back to assessing actual risk -- and write a law that deals with those things that actually pose dangers to our children -- instead of removing perfectly safe items from their lives!)