Re-importing Drugs, TARP for Small Business and Palin on ClimateGate
The Senate health care debate stalls on the question of whether to permit the re-importation of drugs from countries with price controls.
President Obama announces an expansion of the bank bailout program known as TARP.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin writes a controversial op-ed for the Washington Post on global warming and the recent “ClimateGate” scandal.
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.
1. HEALTH
The Senate health care debate stalls on the question of whether to permit the re-importation of drugs from countries with price controls.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on how low-cost re-importation can be hazardous to your health:
“Re-importation advocates suggest that permitting pharmacies and pharmaceutical wholesalers to purchase drugs from countries such as Canada and United Kingdom, which impose vigorous price controls, would permit U.S. citizens to access medicines at sharp discounts over their domestic prices. However, a spate of recent enforcement actions in those countries shows that the pharmaceutical distribution supply chain in many low-cost countries, including those in western Europe, is tainted by a large number of unsafe counterfeit medicines.”
2. BUSINESS
President Obama announces an expansion of the bank bailout program known as TARP.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on the money should go back to taxpayers instead:
“President Obama’s announcement that he will extend TARP — the Troubled Assets Relief Program — and keep spending its proceeds could not have come at a worse time. Credit rating agencies are looking at dropping the ‘Triple A’ rating from the U.S. because of the trillions in spending on bailouts, stimulus and other big-government programs. The rationale put forward seems to be that because we spent this for undeserving big banks, it’s only fair to spend the rest of taxpayer dollars on small businesses, But two wrongs don’t make a right, and this money belongs to taxpayers, not to the favored recipients of politicians.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin writes a controversial op-ed for the Washington Post on global warming and the recent “ClimateGate” scandal.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on the predictable quality of the responses:
“[Palin’s op-ed] yesterday on ClimateGate and the Copenhagen conference has spawned a blizzard of comments from Post readers. Almost 4,000 comments as of this morning. Many of them – no friends of free speech – attack the newspaper for publishing Palin’s article at all. Huffington Post sycophants are similarly energized in their hatred for Palin and for free speech…Interesting that instead of commenting on the substance of the article, detractors are more interested in ad hominems. May sound familiar to skeptics of catastrophic global warming or the ‘deniers’ as they’re often referred to.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.