Poor Governance Is Not a Republican Quality

Liberals, these days, are all chanting the same refrain: "If Democrats were in power x would have been better." Where x is Katrina, the War in Iraq, the FDA, gas prices, whatever. You don't have to look hard to find examples of Democratic negligence in the not-so-distant past.

[I]n 1992, the federal Public Health Service (PHS) recommended [that] all women of childbearing age consume 0.4mg of folic acid daily. The PHS estimated this could lead to a reduction in spina bifida, a crippling birth defect that partially exposes the infant’s spinal cord through a hole in the backbone, of about 50 percent (i.e., about 1,250 cases per year).

However, the FDA would not let producers of foods rich in folic acid (oranges, leafy green vegetables, etc.) inform expectant mothers of this preventive medicine until 1996. From PHS estimates, it may be reasonably postulated that the FDA’s four-year suppression of this health claim caused as many as 5,000 infants to be unnecessarily stricken with spina bifida.

When government has power to make all of our decisions for us, those decisions are likely to be driven by partisan concerns rather than efficacy concerns.

Everyone seems to be rooting for Democrats this November, just don't fool yourself into thinking that anything is going to change.

Tags: FDA, politics, democrats, republicans, healthcare