CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
Consumers in the UK question the value of the billions of pounds paid every year in green taxes.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the costs of environmental regulation in the U.S.:
“When adjusted for inflation, environmental regulatory spending has grown from $81 million to more than $6 billion in 2000 dollars, or 7,372 percent between 1960 and 2006. Only homeland security-related spending exceeds environmental spending, with federal outlays of more than $15 billion in 2006. However, homeland security spending has only increased by 2,089 percent since 1960—meaning that environmental spending has grown more than three times faster than homeland security spending since 1960. Other categories of spending grew far more slowly than environment. An analysis of the staffing levels reveals a similar story.”
2. FINANCE
President Bush announces a plan to address concerns in the mortgage housing market.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau analyzes the plan:
“…the President’s plan contains elements that could be problematic. The Federal Housing Administration bailout of troubled mortgages, while limited, could distort the housing market and prevent more effective refinancing plans. And if his planned crackdown on lenders is limited to those who engaged in fraud, that is good. But the broad brush he used in tarring adjustable rate mortgages could send a signal for heavy-handed regulation by federal agencies, which would raise costs and weaken the housing market further.”
3. HEALTH
A new study raises concerns about drug-coated stents used to treat heart disease.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Jerome Arnett on how the FDA has responded to concerns about heart stents:
“Some claim that FDA should never have approved these stents in the first place, and that the agency is too quick to approve new therapies. But this story is far from over. Many cardiologists, for example, intend to keep using the new stents, even though some may alter their selection of patients to further reduce the risks. This debate raises important questions. All scientific advances come with risks. If we insist on knowing complete knowledge about those risks before we approve a new therapy, we may never get new therapies at all. So who should make the decision? Should we concentrate even more decision-making power in FDA, or should we leave it up to patients and their physicians?”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
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