| FDA Rules Weigh Heavy on Fast Food By Michael Reagan The same administration that assures us its takeover of the nation's health insurance industry is going just fine — with the exception of a few typos, Supreme Court cases and the growing pile of exemption forms — is experiencing a few difficulties with the new menu regime the Food and Drug Administration has established. In case you missed the announcement between bites of your bacon-crust pizza with extra cheese, the Obama administration has ordered restaurant chains to display calorie information on the menu. Editor's Notes: Special: Add Up to $152,046 to Your Social Security Benefits Using Weird Trick 4 Things You'll Feel Before a Heart Attack Like most edicts from the federal government, and particularly this administration, the rule is voluminous and poorly written. Even better, failure to comply could result in someone from the company doing jail time. "Essentially we think this rule is a kind of disaster for everybody," Lynn Liddle, executive vice president of Domino's, told reporter Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon. "Not just pizza but restaurants, and anybody that's going to fall within this law. It's still not workable." Domino's had already attempted to be a good corporate citizen and has been posting calorie counts on the web for more than ten years. Customers who were interested, or simply gluttons for punishment, could go online, customize their pizza with all the toppings they prefer and then see how much larger they will have to buy their pants in the future. Or they could decide not to have the pizza delivered and instead jog to the store themselves. But that wasn't good enough for Nanny Sam. Instead the feds issued a novel-sized tome of "391 pages [that] addresses details such as whether a limited-time 'pumpkin spice muffin' should be covered, [but] it still does not give clear guidance about how restaurants are supposed to comply, according to critics. The rule, finalized in November, will affect chains with 20 or more stores." Liddle explained that a major problem with the final rule is its broad expansion of what qualifies as a "menu." So the definition can refer to any writing that is "used by a customer to make an order selection at the time the customer is viewing the writing" — this could even apply to advertisements, the Free Beacon article noted. Even worse, customizing pizza toppings, crust, garnishes, and extra fat make the number of combinations — each requiring a calorie count — literally countless. This is a concept the top-down pencil pushers in the Obama administration find impossible to grasp. Domino's offers 34 million different pizza combinations and the larger Pizza Hut has 2 billion potential combinations. A customer could starve to death while simply reading the menu. Estimates to comply with this edict run to $1.7 billion for the fast food industry, a cost that will be added to the price of the food but not, we hope, in a lump sum. Liddle said Domino's will continue to fight to stop this stupid rule: "Hope springs eternal. I still believe that somebody will listen to common sense." But that was before the government decided to take control of the Internet. Michael Reagan is the son of former President Ronald Reagan and chairman of the League of American Voters. His blog appears on reaganreports.com More Links: Get These 4 Stocks Before 399% Stock Market Rally! ALERT: Warren Buffett's Obscure Strategy to 'Retirement Prosperity' | 
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