As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, despite yet another outbreak of food-borne illness — this time stemming from listeria infected cantaloupes — congressional Republicans are still trying to cut back on the nation’s food safety regulations. The tainted melons have caused 16 deaths so far, making this the deadliest outbreak in more than a decade, and it comes just a month after salmonella-tainted turkey forced food-giant Cargill into the third-largest food recall on record.

Lost in the well-deserved focus on the listeria outbreak is the fact that another giant food-producer, Tyson Fresh Meats, was forced this week to recall more than 130,000 pounds of ground beef due to E. Coli contamination. And this particular breakdown in food safety should earn the attention of the man leading the GOP in its slash-and-burn approach to the budget, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), as four children in his district were sickened by the meat:

The recall of 65 tons of ground beef that might be contaminated with E. coli has hit close to home for House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

The meat, recalled today by Tyson Fresh Meats, was shipped to 16 states…WCPO, ABC’s affiliate in Cincinnati, reported today, “four children became ill after eating the meat with their family in Butler County, Ohio, in the second week of September.” “A 9-year-old child was hospitalized for about 10 days with severe diarrhea,” the station reported.

As we’ve pointed out time and time again, one in six Americans is sickened by food-borne illness each year, and more than 3,000 die. The annual cost to the country of food-borne illnesses is $152 billion, according to Georgetown University’s Produce Safety Project. However, the GOP has not only refused to fund the implementation of a landmark food safety law passed last year, but has said that the current rules on the books are too onerous, because the food industry “self-polices.” But as the current slew of recalls shows, that it clearly not the case.

GOP presidential front runner and secession enthusiast Gov. Rick Perry (TX) touts the primacy of state control and often points back to his reign over the state of Texas as proof of its efficacy. Of course, under Perry, Texas has a plummeting employment-to-population ratio, the highest rate of uninsured residents, the greatest number of executions, the highest pollution rate, and a derth of well-paying jobs.

On education, Perry offers the same message: “I don’t think the federal government has a role.” In rebuking the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education funds, Perry said it “smacks of federal takeover of public schools” and “could very well lead to the ‘dumbing down’ of the rigorous standards we’ve worked so hard to enact.” Once again, Texas tells a different story. Perry’s education “standards” — exemplified by $4 billion in budget cuts to education for the upcoming budget cycle — will force schools to lay off as many as 49,000 teachers and will leave at least 43,000 college students without financial aid:

Faced with a $15 billion budget deficit this year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed off on $4 billion in cuts to education in the 2012 and 2013 budgets. The Texas State Teachers Association estimates that as many as 49,000 teachers may be laid off as a result of the cuts and 43,000 college students will lose all or part of their financial aid.

Indeed, scholarships for 29,000 low-income college students will be completely eliminated. What’s more, Perry’s axe to the education budget has forced local school districts to impose fees on school programs and services for students and families, universities to find outside money to continue high-level research, and some universities to consider imposing higher tuition or fees on students.

The cuts will entirely eliminate the state’s medical primary care residency program and reduce funding for the family-practice residency by more than 70 percent. In fact, Perry’s entire education vision will result in the loss of more than 100,000 private sector jobs.

Last year, Texas ranked dead last in the percentage of adults with high school diplomas. That same year, Texas ranked very low among states for spending per student in public school. If Perry wants to continue to point to a state to prove his efficacy, he may have to pick one other than Texas.

In March, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed an overwhelmingly unpopular anti-union bill into law that stripped the state’s employees of almost all of their collective bargaining rights. While Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) more infamous union-busting law in Wisconsin actually let police officers and firefighters off the hook, the Washington Independent notes that Kasich’s law forces these public safety workers to beg for the resources they need to do their jobs.

Jay McDonald, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Ohio, says that if SB 5 is not repealed, about 51,000 public employees across the state could lose their jobs — two-thirds of them public safety workers:

The inability to bargain in any meaningful way could affect public safety in Ohio in a myriad of ways, McDonald said.

“It prohibits police officers and firefighters from talking to their employers about staffing,” he said. “It’ll be politicians that are making the decision on how many people are on a fire truck or how many police officers are working through a shift as opposed to the experts that know the needs of their community.”[...]

Less police on the beat could mean increased crime rates while fewer firefighters in stations across the state could add to response times in emergencies.

“Without the ability to negotiate for staffing levels, we lose firefighters. When a call comes in, there’s less firefighters available,” said Carney. “When you reduce staffing you reduce the availability of people to be able to respond to emergencies.”

Under the new law, cops and firefighters can only bargain for (i.e. request) the personal safety equipment they need to protect themselves and others, but management — which often focuses on cost-cutting — could ultimately have the final say. McDonald calls the reduced position of public safety works “collective begging” that makes them completely dependent on the benevolence of bureaucrats — an unacceptable situation when lives are at stake.

It’s far from a given that management will automatically approve requests for safety equipment. In fact, in the past, state troopers had to go through a bitter arbitration process to force the state to install shields that would keep patrol vehicles from exploding — a defect that killed three officers.

Chris Weaver, vice president of the Youngstown Professional Fire Fighters Local 312, puts it bluntly: “If Senate Bill 5 becomes law, safety is going to be limited. We won’t be able to sit down and negotiate proper safety equipment that will protect us and protect the community.” Ohio voters will have the ability to repeal Kasich’s anti-union law through a statewide referendum on November 8.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has tried to style himself as a staunch defender of states’ rights and the 10th Amendment, which delegates to the states powers not enshrined in the Constitution. “You either have to believe in the 10th Amendment or you don’t,” he’s said. “You can’t believe in the 10th Amendment for a few issues and then [for] something that doesn’t suit you say, ‘We’d rather not have states decide that.’”

However, proving once again that his commitment to states’ rights only applies when it’s convenient, Perry’s spokesman told The Street that the governor would support a national “right to work” law:

“Governor Perry would support Senator DeMint’s national right to work bill,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner told The Street in an email.

At the moment, states decide whether or not to be “right to work,” which is a policy that allows non-union members to work in unionized companies (which both lets those employees free-ride on the gains that the union secures for them and, obviously, weakens the union by allowing workers to enjoy its benefits while not offering it any financial support). The bill that Perry supports — proposed by another faux states’ rights supporter, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) — would overrule those states that have decided not to become “right to work” and force the policy upon them.

This is hardly the first time that Perry has ditched his belief in states’ rights in order to support right-wing goals. As Ian Milllhiser noted, Perry supports the anti-gay marriage “Federal Marriage Act,” which would overrule states that have adopted marriage equality. “Perry’s claim that he supports states’ rights to govern themselves, while simultaneously supporting the anti-gay ‘Federal Marriage Amendment’ is impossible to reconcile,” Milllhiser wrote.

So Perry is proving over and over that his dedication to states’ rights only applies when it’s in support of policies he likes. Otherwise, he is perfectly fine with big government coming in and dictating to states which rules they are going to follow.