Unfortunately, it is much easier to not enforce regulations, to cut budgets and staff, and to create and foster a laissez-faire culture at government agencies than it is to turn those things around. President Obama inherited an absolute mess, and not all of it was created during the Bush presidency. While I would love for food safety to be a higher priority than it is, rightly or wrongly, the economy is going to take precedence over everything else right now.

Factor in that many of the people who joined the federal government during the Bush years did not really believe in enforcement of regulations or their agency's mission are still working at those agencies; that many good, experienced people quit or retired early during the Bush years; and that anything President Obama does is derided as "socialist," "fascist," etc., and I think that real change is going to be slow.