Eggs are sickening. Eggs are sickening people all across the US. Thousands of people. And much of the problem can be tracked back to one egg producer: Austin J. DeCoster. He's the owner of many huge egg producing plants, and has been sickening people with his salmonella-tainted^* eggs since the late 1970s.

We could obviously stand to have better egg safety regulations in this country. And there's a bill in the Senate that promises to help. However, one Senator is holding it up:

A Republican senator is threatening to hold up food safety legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration more power to prevent outbreaks, saying Democrats must find a way to pay for it.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma says the bill, which has stalled in the Senate for more than a year, adds to the deficit and expands the power of an already troubled agency.

...

The legislation has broad bipartisan backing in Congress and support from the food and restaurant industries.The House passed the bill over a year ago.

Adds to the deficit ? Interesting. How much?

Coburn agrees that food safety needs a complete overhaul but says the current effort is disingenuous because there is not any money dedicated to it. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost $1.4 billion.

$1.4 billion! That sounds like a lot of money!

I wonder what else costs $1.4B.

Well, seven days in Afghanistan costs $1.4B.

Given $1,400,000,000 , you can fund the US Department of Defense for 17 hours.

Yeah, I think we can find a way to pay for it.

* - than he manages to rub all those eggs on his taint is impressive, however.