CEI Daily Update

Issues in the News

1.  CONGRESS

The House of Representatives votes to give more regulatory power to the Food and Drug Administration.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on a poll of oncologists that found 77% believed that the FDA was too slow in approving new drugs:

FDA reform is frequently attacked as a pet project of big business that will allegedly open the door to snake oil remedies. This characterization is wrong. As these polls demonstrate, for many medical specialists, fighting heart disease and cancer can often mean fighting FDA. If this isn’t a public health problem in need of reform, what is?

2. ECONOMICS

The DC Examiner editorializes in praise of the CEI report “10,000 Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Regulatory State.”

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the hidden costs of federal regulation:

The U.S. government has conclusively ended its recent short-lived string of budgetary surpluses—the first since 1969. But if their regaining and maintaining a genuine surplus remains a priority, policy makers must control regulatory costs. Consider: the Congressional Budget Office projects no surplus over the coming decade until a speculative $170 billion in 2012. Regulatory costs of more than $1.14 trillion clearly dwarf that amount. Moreover, regulations and taxes can substitute for one another; a new government program requires increasing spending—or imposing new rules and regulations. 

3. HEALTH

Oxford University researchers propose a “fat tax” to combat obesity.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on what happens when the fight over obesity hits the courtroom:

If obesity lawsuits succeed, they will turn all Americans into ‘victims,’ incapable of bearing responsibility for personal choices. Such lawsuits may benefit trial lawyers, but they’ll hurt consumers on limited budgets who will be forced to pay higher food prices. 

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].