Leaving aside the rebellious teenage rhetoric, a look back at some of these laws reveals neither party is immune to telling the American people how to live their lives.

In 1862, Republican President Abraham Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Chemistry, which would later become the Food and Drug Administration. This, over the course of the next 150 years or so, would give birth to our modern food labels.
In 1967, we got the National Transportation Safety Board, and a year later, our first seat belt laws. Democrat Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon launched the Environmental Protection Agency. (Incidentally, the Associated Press reported on just-released White House tapes that show Nixon privately pushing for a ban on all handguns in the wake of the failed assassination attempt on George Wallace in 1972.)
In 1976, Congress passed the first Hyde Amendment, in response to Roe v. Wade, which barred federal funds from providing abortions to low-income women. The rider, named after author U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, landed on the desk of President Gerald Ford, who signed it into law.
In 1984, Republican icon Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act into law, forcing the states in to revising the drinking ages up to 21 or sacrifice federal highway funds.
And, speaking of party icons and drinking (or even drinking party icons), left-wing poster child Bill Clinton signed a similar "federal highway fund blackmail" bill into law in 2000 to "encourage" states to lower the blood alcohol thresholds for driving under the influence violations.
Finally, President Barack Obama signed a massive anti-smoking bill into law in 2009, giving the FDA sweeping powers of regulation over the tobacco industry.

Reasonable people would be hard-pressed to argue against most of this legislation. While the more "libertarians" among us might say there are several victimless crimes here, they still impose costs on the rest of society, whether in the form of tax dollars, health care costs (or premiums) or simply sleepless nights.

Instant Insights /

‘Ain’t nobody’s business’

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