Posted on 03/20/2013 9:21:36 PM PDT by mom of young patriots
Texas State Rep. Drew Springer embraces freedom.
Even for plastic bags.
The Republican from Muenster recently filed "The Shopping Bag Freedom Act," a bill intended to block plastic-bag bans in Austin and other Texas cities.
Such bans are designed to push customers into buying reusable bags at the checkout stand or bringing some to the store.
Supporters praise the bans as a boost for the environment.
Critics deride them as unwarranted government intrusion that could increase costs for consumers.
"At a time of economic recession and with food prices at an all-time high, this hidden social tax on the poor will cause many to have to choose between necessary items such as milk and bread or having a reusable bag to carry their groceries," Springer said. "This type of government overreach must be stopped here and now.
"If a municipality can ban bags, what is to say they won't mandate how large a soda can be or how much salt one can put on their food."
Plastic bags have been a mainstay in grocery and convenience stores and restaurants for decades, edging out paper bags in popularity soon after they were introduced.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/15/4703821/texas-lawmaker-wants-to-stop-plastic.html#storylink=cpy
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
I get the same feeling when people coo over me for riding my bicycle. I deflate them by telling them it’s better than giving my money to unionized streetcar drivers.
Before they ban them here I will buy a few cases since we use them for lining trash bags and cat litter.
I have a lifetime supply of reusable bags for groceries from hagerty Insurance, they give them away free at car shows.
“I am disgusted to be mistaken for a politically correct environmentalist and the string bag is a magnet for that kind of assumption”
We have bags from Hagerty Custom Car Insurance so the envirowenies know we burn lots of gasoline in the hot rods!!
I don't know....but I sure as hell would love to find out!
This bag ban is really pissing me off. Sadly - my attempt to move out to Round Rock was unsuccessful and I’ll be staying in Travis for now.
Lot of salmonella can take up residence in those bags.
Cloth bags carry disgusting germs. YEAH I would love for my apples to get e coli from a leaky meat pack.
Julia Liouse Dreyfus. Yeah these oh so compassionate libtards can’t grasp tthat poor people can’t afford to buy and or keep clran these cloth sacks. Idiots.
I use my grocery bags as trash bags for small trash cans. Bet the idiots buy small trash bags for theirs.
White grocery bags tied on a line around our garden kept deer away from eating our food.
While the sanitation issues have been mentioned before, what you rarely hear about is the merchants say their theft losses are doubling when people start carrying their own bags around the store.
We have had a ban on plastic for a few years, here at the Outer Banks NC. Especially in Dare and Hyde county. There were plastic bags littered on the beach and getting caught on the sea grass. Probably discarded by some surf fisherman that used them to carry bait. Bags stuck on seagulls in flight and inside blue fish.
Should they make up their minds? No. Whimsical, burdensome decisions are the prerogative of our betters.
FYI, paper bags cost about 3X more than plastic.
Personally, I don't mind the enviro-nuts using tote-bags. If they want filth and disease for themselves, so be it. Maybe they'll learn something. But probably not.
Ditto. Raw chicken liquid gets in the plastic bag, into the trash with it. A reusable bag has to be washed.
Everything they say is a lie. They hate life and progress.
Someone should think about the “data” of bags. In Dallas Ft Worth we have 6,000,000 people, if 10% go shopping for grocieries and take 3 bags that is 1.8 million plastic bags EVERY DAY... cut the number in half - 1 MILLION. Now add all the bags at Lowes, Home Depot and other retail stores - like Target, WalMart or Subway. I bet that in DFW we move 2 MILLION bags a day. How many do we see in trees or on river banks - as a percentage of that daily number? In 30 days 60 million bags? How many are discarded, but how many are reused for dog poop, kitty litter or garbage in the house?
If you are in Austin, listen to KLBJ. They are talking about this today and a caller just quoted a TX law that makes the ban unconstitutional.
Yes, I have heard that it can be a bigger problem in coastal areas. Ocean pollution that may affect local sea life, etc. That is for those municipalities to decide for themselves based on their circumstances. I don’t know if the bill takes that into account. However, I don’t see anyone proposing free market friendly solutions to the problem of plastic bag litter. Deposits on glass soda bottles, for instance, kept them out of the ditches in the 70’s and tin cans were valuable enough at one time for street people to turn them into cash. Seems like buying plastic bags from people we are now just giving a welfare check and foodstamps to would be a better use of our money. We are letting liberals jump too quickly to their big brother legislative solutions without considering ideas that could really benefit everybody. Incentive rather than punishment is always healthier to a free society.
Thanks. I’ll tune in.
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