Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds

by Rand Paul

  When prosecutions begin in Egypt, the defendants appear in court in a cage. An actual cage. So much for a presumption of innocence. It was quite telling that in a press photo I came across of Nancy during that harrowing time, she was not shrinking. She was not visibly afraid. What was she doing instead? In the photo, she was reading George Orwell, perhaps trying to understand the authoritarian, thought-police drama she was ensconced in at that moment. (You can see the photo at http://www.vosizneias.com/news/photos/view/830245833.)

  It brought a bittersweet smile to my face when I saw it. This persecuted woman, courageous yet afraid, aware of her role in this government drama, yet desperately trying to break free from this tyranny—for herself, her family, her country.

  As of June 2012, Nancy decided to go back to stand trial in Egypt. As of this writing I do not know what will happen to her, but she is a hero and I hope her story will be told that way.

  Another hero is Sherif Mansour.

  Sherif was not in Egypt during the crackdown on his employer, Freedom House. He was in the United States. In fact, he was becoming a U.S. citizen—his lifelong dream.

  But instead of simply continuing his work here and celebrating the freedoms he now enjoys as an American citizen, he returned to Egypt to stand beside Nancy and the other Egyptians as they undergo trial.

  Sherif believes, and rightfully so, that most Americans have lost focus on this episode, since the American citizens were allowed to go free. He is hoping that his standing trial as an American citizen will help keep the public spotlight on the abuses of the Egyptian government.

  I stand with him and with Nancy, and will continue to fight to demand reform in Egypt before we send them foreign aid.

  In the past decade, much of our foreign policy has been America as the world’s policeman, as a nation builder, or as a force to spread democracy and human rights.

  America has always been a light and an example to the world. But there are practical limits to what we can expect to accomplish. I don’t agree with a foreign policy that has led to us being cavalier in our use of force, that ignores the Constitution and even basic common sense, around the world and in our name.

  There is something to be said for America doing two important things—shining our beacon of freedom in places around the world in need of such illumination, but also not spending our time and treasure in countries that regularly thumb us in the eye.

  We needn’t bomb everyone who suppresses freedom. We can’t afford it, and honestly, it wouldn’t solve the problem. But we can use other tools at our disposal—foreign aid, or more accurately, withholding of foreign aid—to persuade other countries to follow the path toward more freedom. We can’t afford to dole out any foreign aid at the moment, but as long as we are, why should we encourage countries that behave in a tyrannical manner by giving them American taxpayer dollars?

  There are many reasons why I chose to write in this book about the Egyptian detainee situation. First, I wanted to note that bullying and abuse of power by a government is certainly not something unique to our government. Even with our problems, you certainly cannot really compare our government to that of a country like Egypt. Indeed, for most of our history and in countless ways, we have been one of the lesser offenders when it comes to government bullying and abuse.

  All governments, at one time or another and to varying degrees, will assume too much power. They will cease following the rules written for them. They will attempt to trample on the rights of their citizens. From California to Cairo, this will inevitably happen. Such is the nature of government, and America always stands for liberty and against tyranny.

  The other reason I wanted to write about this situation of Americans being detained is because at the time this was happening, Egypt was not the only place where the detention of American citizens was being contemplated. In fact, while most of my colleagues were with me on this issue, and were not in favor of Egypt being allowed to detain Americans, they were also readily handing vast new powers of detention of American citizens to our federal government, and particularly the executive branch. This threat to our long-standing historic liberties came as part of something called the “National Defense Authorization Act.”

  Some of what this act contains will haunt every freedom-loving American. Some of it allows our government to take away some of the basic things that make us American.

  The right to due process, habeas corpus, a fair trial—these are basic American rights enshrined in our Constitution that no branch of government has the right or power to take from us. The very concept of what we think of as “freedom” rests first on these basic legal precepts. Americans cannot stand idly by and watch their destruction. And we won’t.

  PART 4

  Keeping Us Safe? FDA and USDA Bullies

  “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

  —UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT VIII

  17

  Paved with Good Intentions

  “If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny.”

  —THOMAS JEFFERSON

  Those who say that art and culture can’t influence government don’t know their history.

  For America’s first hundred years, we were mostly an agrarian nation. We only ate what we grew ourselves or what was grown nearby. Lacking the technology to preserve food, anything we grew or butchered for commercial purposes had to be sold quickly.

  As technology advanced and America became more urban and industrialized, the demand for commercial food products grew—and so did the incidence of disease, deplorable industry conditions, unsafe production methods, and other problems for those who grew, processed, and shipped food.

  Early-twentieth-century muckraking journalists regularly told horror stories in vivid detail about the emerging commercial food industry. Like most stories—in the long and “proud” history of sensationalist journalism—some of them were true and some were not. Some were half true.

  Upton Sinclair’s famous 1906 novel The Jungle was written to focus attention on the deplorable working conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking district. Sinclair depicted immigrant workers’ impoverishment and tragic existence. The author wanted to show the rest of America just how rough these newcomers to our country had it.

  But the general public—and the federal government—took a different lesson from his book than perhaps Sinclair intended.

  One of the stories in The Jungle depicts dangerous working conditions, and describes a scene where employees at a meatpacking plant fall into the “rendering pit” at their factory. The workers’ bodies are mangled and ground up along with all of the other animal parts. The final product is later put on the market as lard.

  This story was never proved, and in fact was likely false. Though many of the horror stories depicted in the book were true—general poor health and safety conditions, abusive child labor—the story that was not provable created public demand for one of the largest expansions of government in history: the Food and Drug Administration and the national Department of Agriculture.

  In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Food and Drug Acts, creating what would later become the FDA (first known as the Bureau of Chemistry). These acts included nationwide food inspections, creating a new federal bureaucracy that cost $30 million in 1906.

  As government inevitably does, these agencies and their missions expanded over the years. In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, adding many provisions to the FDA’s original mission, including regulation of mechanical devices and cosmetics. Basically, if you could ingest it or put it on your skin or hair, the FDA could now regulate it, and the agency could enforce these regulations by inspecting private businesses.

  Prescription drug controls were tightened. The FDA demanded an approval process for all
new drugs, testing for safety and efficacy. They set up new procedures for clinical trials and evaluations. Since 1938, the FDA has approved all drugs sold in the United States.

  So far none of this should be cause for alarm. But as we all know, even government programs created with the best intentions can get out of control if they are allowed to grow unchecked. Government programs that begin in one era can take on new or different functions in a later era. Depending on the moment in history and on what the general public will tolerate at the time, these programs are more or less susceptible to being challenged or questioned. Today the FDA employs over eleven thousand people. It has requested a budget of $4.5 billion for fiscal year 2013—an increase of nearly 20 percent over FY 2012 allocations!

  That massive amount funds just a part of the FDA’s original mission. Today the FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, and concentrates on regulating drugs and medical devices. The “food” part of the Food and Drug Administration—the entire reason for creating the FDA—for the most part doesn’t exist anymore. That function is now mostly handled by the Department of Agriculture.

  The USDA has existed in various forms since the early 1830s, but became officially the Department of Agriculture (a noncabinet agency at first) under President Lincoln. In 1889 the USDA finally became a full cabinet agency.

  Like the FDA, the history of the USDA is again the inevitable tale of runaway government growth. As mentioned earlier, for the first hundred years of America’s history, nearly our entire country and economy were based on agriculture. Somehow we managed to get by without a federal department of agriculture. But with the passage of time, as our country became less based on agriculture, the government saw fit to intervene and “help” us.

  The USDA in 2013 is expected to have a budget of over $150 billion. That’s billion with a “b.” That this agency is a monster is undeniable. That it has grown out of proportion to our actual need for it, not to mention its original purpose, is also undeniable.

  The USDA employs over 100,000 workers throughout the United States and even in foreign countries. What do these workers do? Some “help” farmers. They don’t actually pick crops, mind you. They administer price support and loan programs, which most farmers will tell you are out of date. They handle food safety. They staff the Forest Service.

  I think we can all agree that there is a need and a role for an agency like the USDA, though with fewer employees and less taxpayer dollars—a lot fewer employees and less taxpayer dollars.

  So what happens to an agency with a well-intended mission that bloats to 100,000 employees and a $150 billion budget? It starts to look for new missions. It starts to find new purposes. It starts to believe it can do basically whatever the heck it wants to do.

  Again, one wouldn’t think that such agencies would have a need for automatic weapons and SWAT teams, perfectly willing to terrorize farmers, organic food co-ops, and natural food stores across the country.

  For centuries, Amish and Mennonite communities have farmed the hilly countryside of Pennsylvania. They’ve used the same methods and practices for just as long. These communities have often supplied the same families and stores.

  Until about ten years ago, they did so largely without interference from the federal government. Not anymore. Now small farmers up and down the Mid-Atlantic region are raided at gunpoint by goons from the USDA and FDA. What product were they trafficking in that led to such harsh treatment from their government?

  Milk.

  That’s right, mostly milk. We can add this to guitars and bunnies to create quite a bizarre list of contraband items seized by overzealous government agents.

  Our government is trying to put the small organic dairy farmer out of business. They bully farmers with the full cooperation of state agriculture departments, which use the same tactics against farmers.

  I’ll tell you the story of a co-op in Kentucky that ran afoul of the state Agriculture Department. I’ll tell you the story of a natural food store in California. I’ll tell you the story of an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania.

  These stories span the length of the country. They involve different methods of farming and delivery, and different types of businesses, but they all had one thing in common: The offenders dared to sell raw milk to willing, informed consumers.

  In November 2011, my office was happy to participate with the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, who set out to acquire raw milk in protest of raids on small farmers like Dan Allgyer of Pennsylvania.

  The Raw Milk Freedom Riders intentionally purchased and transported raw milk across state lines in violation of federal law. They set up shop right outside the FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Then they drove to a farm in Pennsylvania, acquired the raw milk, and headed back across the state line to Maryland. Once everyone arrived, the “illegal” milk was distributed to waiting protesters, who sat and listened to various speakers while eating homemade cookies (probably some other sort of FDA or USDA regulation was broken there as well).

  The speakers came from across the country, and each had had all sorts of different horrible experiences with the FDA and USDA.

  Organizer Liz Reitzig, president of the Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and cofounder of the Farm Food Freedom Coalition, made the point that the FDA ban on raw milk undermines our own liberty, parental authority, and consumer choice, all for no good reason.

  Kristin Canty and Sally Fallon Morrell, a nutrition expert, spoke about the health benefits of raw milk. Ms. Canty believes that raw milk cured her son of severe allergies, and he is now a healthy teenager, allergy-and medication-free. Canty produced a documentary called Farmaggedon, which highlighted the government raids, abuse, and overzealous regulation of family farms. Anyone who sees it would be scared out of their wits, knowing what government is empowered to do to farmers on your behalf.

  A leader of the farm freedom movement, Joel Salatin, also spoke at the rally. Joel is a farmer and author from Virginia, who noted that the government allows kids to ingest Mountain Dew, Twinkies, and Cocoa Puffs but finds raw milk to be a health threat to worry about. Joel makes an excellent point.

  Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Company in California, spoke at the rally. Although raw milk is technically legal in California, he was investigated (undercover) in 2004 and 2007.

  Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund outlined a lawsuit his organization was filing, challenging the interstate ban in a federal district court.

  The speaker who came from the farthest away to participate was Michael Schmidt, a dairy farmer from Ontario, Canada. For the past twenty years, Mr. Schmidt has been selling raw milk through a cow share program. But in 2006, armed agents raided his farm, arrested him, and put him in jail. He was prosecuted for fifteen counts of distributing unpasteurized milk.

  Mr. Schmidt, despite his prosecution, is still an advocate for food freedom. In fact, at the day of the rally he was on the thirty-fourth day of a hunger strike, in an attempt to get Canada’s premier to meet with him to discuss the sale of safe raw milk.

  Civil disobedience. Hunger strikes. Persecuted activists. The food freedom movement has all the hallmarks of the great struggles of the past, and that’s because it shares a common enemy with those movements—aggressive and arrogant government.

  More Americans than ever are standing up to fight and take action.

  Carolyn Moffa from my Senate staff proudly participated and drank some of the “illegal” milk. So far she hasn’t been arrested. But isn’t it insane to think that in America someone could be arrested for the “crime” of drinking milk directly from the cow?

  Interestingly, among the participants in the rally was someone from my own state of Kentucky—a constituent from Louisville who has been investigated and attacked by our state agriculture authorities. I wouldn’t have even known about that if not for the rally. I’ll tell you a bit more about him too.

  These people share one thing in common—they
want to be left alone. They aren’t just conservatives or liberals, or Democrats or Republicans. They come from different backgrounds, live in different states, and have divergent political beliefs on other issues.

  But they all want freedom. They know it is being taken away. And they are fighting to take their government back. When I ran for office, I said I would stand with folks just like them. And I do.

  18

  Public Enemy No. 1: Amish Raw Milk

  “I’m for regulation, but why is the FDA doing this? Here’s the FDA in hazmat suits taking on the little farmer with twenty cows. This is an Amish guy trying to make a living.”

  —MARION NESTLE, NUTRITIONIST

  Imagine that it is 5 a.m. on a hazy morning in April. The sun has not yet risen and you are still in bed, resting and thinking about the laborious day ahead working on your farm. But instead of being wakened by your alarm clock, you are yanked out of bed by a government agent. Imagine your day beginning with an unannounced government raid—two U.S. marshals and a state trooper, storming your farm with a warrant and loaded weapons in hand.

  You would no doubt be wondering what you had done wrong, how this abrupt intrusion had come about and why. Yet you would soon learn that you had been the target of a yearlong sting operation conducted by the federal government.

  This might sound like the trailer for some upcoming action movie. It is not. It is precisely what happened to Amish farmer Daniel Allgyer.

  Daniel Allgyer, his wife, Rachel, and their eight children live in a town called Kinzers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Like most Amish families, they live simple lives while operating their dairy farm, Rainbow Acres Farm. They run a small agricultural business from their farm, where they sell fresh cheese, butter, milk, and produce. You might be wondering what made the seemingly innocent Amish dairy farmer Allgyer a target worthy of federal search and seizure. Was Mr. Allgyer committing violent crimes? Was he selling drugs from his home? Was he housing criminals?