Nanny State Strikes Again in Texas

Where have all the small government conservative lawmakers gone? That's the question that many should be asking right now.

Last week the Texas House passed a bill that banned drinks like Four Loko and other alcoholic energy drinks. Here are some of the details from the Texas Tribune:

The House passed a ban today on malt liquor drinks that contain caffeine, ginseng, taurine or guarana. The bill prohibits the sale, manufacture, import and possession of alcoholic energy drinks, like the infamous Four Loko.

Four Loko is marketed to children and contains the equivalent of five beers and three coffees, said Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, author of the bill. The "FDA does not have the authority to completely ban these beverages,” Alvarado said. Her intention is to stop "the deaths and tragedies that occurred with kids" who were drinking the beverages.

Oh look! The "it's for the children" argument. Last time I checked, Texas already had laws that dealt with underage drinking. So why do we need this? Why not just enforce the laws that we already have instead of banning products from the state?

All this bill does is punish responsible adults because of the actions of a few kids. This is complete government overreach and wrong for Texas. The state is outlawing products to protect us? No thank you. That isn't why we sent you to Austin. Lawmakers in Austin love to slap around Washington for overreach, but when it comes to state overreach of government, that is just fine. A bunch of hypocrites.

Again I say, welcome to the Nanny State. It's very obvious that we have more and more lawmakers who believe that they know better than we do. The legislature has taken up other bills that put more government into our lives, yet this was supposed to be the "conservative legislature".

Opponents also have another good point. Will this bill now ban mixed drinks that are popular at bars? Will Red Bull and Vodka be banned? What about Jack and Coke?

We will see what the ramifications might be if this bill goes the full way, but one thing is clear. The people we elected to office aren't as small government or conservative as we thought. This is just the latest example. Remember the smoking ban that's been kicked around? What about Pay Day loan legislation? And of course the legislation that allowed lawmakers to carry guns where we average Texans can't.

Any lawmaker that voted for this bill should be ashamed of themselves, and we had all better keep paying attention to what's going on not only  in Washington, but Austin as well.