Alert: August 20 is Lemonade Freedom Day!

Even kids' Lemonade stands have felt the impact of restrictive regulations. As a general rebellion against non-sensical over-regulation, a group of people have declared Saturday, August 20, to be Lemonade Freedom Day ... and are urging kids all over the U.S. to sell lemonade that day.

If you go to the website (www.lemonadefreedom.org), you will see a map with pins in it denoting locations that have regulations that control lemonade stands ... typically vendor permits or health inspections. (One of them is Appleton.) It also includes guidance for you to follow if someone tries to shut down your lemonade stand.

On August 20th, pledge to buy a lemonade from every kid with a stand that you see!!

PS: Appleton's event, according to the website: Appleton hosts an Old Car Show every year near Lydia Coenen's house. The nine-year-old and her friend have been selling lemonade and cookies to passersby for the last several years. This year, they were shut down by police. Vendors inside the car show didn’t appreciate the competition, so they convinced the city council to ban concession sales within a certain radius of the Old Car Show, putting young Lydia and her friend out of business.

Some more data:

• The cost of FEDERAL REGULATIONS is estimated at $1.8 trillion.

• The FEDERAL spending budget for the year ending in September will be $3.8 trillion, of which $1.5 trillion will be deficit.

• STATE/LOCAL government spending will total $1.6 trillion.

• The U.S. GDP will be about $15 trillion.

So ...

• The deficit will be increased by $1.5 trillion, making total U.S. debt about $15 trillion, equal to the GDP.

• Federal spending will be just over 25% of GDP ... the tipping point for countries that aren't resilient to economic shocks.

• Total government spending (federal/state/local) will be $5.4 trillion, or 36% of GDP. Regulations add 12% more.