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Rep. Jeffrey Duncan

Mr. Speaker, a year or two ago, some local bureaucrat in Oregon shut down a 7-year-old girl's lemonade stand because she had not paid the $120 required to get a restaurant license. The bureaucrat's supervisor defended the action because some government officials will never admit a mistake. Fortunately, elected officials got the action rescinded and let the little girl operate her lemonade stand.

I thought about this when I heard that Big Brother had struck once again by not allowing a 4-year-old girl in North Carolina to eat the lunch she had brought to school from home because supposedly it did not meet Federal guidelines. The little girl had brought a very healthy lunch: a turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, chips, and apple juice. Instead, she ate three chicken nuggets apparently okayed by the government, and the school sent a bill for the lunch to her mother.

This is the Big Government nanny state run amuck. This was not only ridiculous and excessive, it was cruel to tell a 4-year-old child the lunch her mother had sent was bad or not proper. Plus, the little girl went home hungry.

We seem to have, Mr. Speaker, a government of, by, and for the bureaucrats instead of one that is of, by, and for the people.