San Francisco Mayor Newsom Vetoes Happy Meal Ban with Veto Overturn Expected

As expected, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's controversial Happy Meal Ban.

The Supervisors had voted 8 to 3 in favor of the Happy Meal Ban. It takes an 8 to 3 vote to overturn a veto.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to overturn the mayor's veto.

Mayor Newsom's reasoning for the veto sounded quite reasonable. As in he basically believes it is not the government's business to dictate what a restaurant can put on its menu. Or to do the parenting job for parents.

I really am not understanding how it can even be legal to dictate the contents of a Happy Meal.

Why not just make only the Fat Kids to get the "improved" Happy Meals? How is it fair to punish the healthy weighted kids who want a normal Happy Meal?

Why stop with just tinkering with Happy Meals? Why doesn't the San Francisco Board of Supervisors vote to install Food Police in all San Francisco grocery stores. Ban the sale of any junk food to any person who has an Fat Kid with them.

Or make all San Francisco parents take their kids in for a Fat Inspection. If they pass they get a Happy Meal Junk Food license. To buy a Happy Meal or Junk Food, the license must be shown.

Of course this would just make a Happy Meal Junk Food Black Market. Or send parents with Fat Kids outside the borders of San Francisco to get their Happy Meals and Junk Food.

I am sort of embarrassed for San Francisco over this Happy Meal nonsense. Seems like the town has a good mayor though.

And doing something about Childhood Obesity is a worthy goal. But, changing the contents of Happy Meals won't help all victims of Childhood Obesity, like the girl you'll meet in the YouTube video below....

San Francisco Attacks the Childhood Obesity Epidemic By Banning McDonald's Happy Meals

The Childhood Obesity Epidemic is a very big problem. And getting bigger. But should government be dictating to McDonald's what McDonald's can put in a Happy Meal?

In San Francisco, that's in California, the Board of Supervisors voted 8 to 3 in favor of banning toy giveaways in Happy Meals and other fast food promotions, unless the Happy Meal has some fruit and vegetables in it, along with a lower fat, sugar and sodium content.

The mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, has said he will  veto the ban. But the supervisors have enough votes to over turn a veto.

McDonald's is not too happy with San Francisco right now and is fighting the ordinance.

A McDonald's owner in San Francisco, Scott Rodrick was quoted saying, "Somehow the San Francisco Board of Supervisors just took the happy out of Happy Meals."

The Happy Meal ordinance allows restaurants to give away a toy if the Happy Meal amounts to less than 600 calories, has less than 640 milligrams of sodium, less than 35% of the calories coming from fat, of which less than 10% can be saturated fat. Less than 35% of the calories in a milkshake can come from fat, with less than 10% added sugar.

Plus, the Happy Meals must  have at least half a cup of fruit or at least three quarters of a cup of vegetables.

The government micromanaging a Happy Meal like this seems a bit nuts to me. By the way, nuts, seeds, eggs or low-fat cheese are exempted from the Happy Meal fat quotient.

Methinks it's the parents job to decide what their kids eat. How about San Francisco passing an ordinance where a parent of an obese child gets arrested for buying his fat kid a Happy Meal, slapped with a hefty fine and forced to attend parenting school? Or, better yet, bypass the Happy Meal trigger and just start charging the parents of obese children with child abuse. That'd be more efficient.