CEI Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. HEALTH

New drug approvals by the Food and Drug Administration decline dramatically.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Doug Bandow on the fatal overcaution of the FDA:

“Government regulation almost always is biased towards inaction and prohibition. Making a ‘mistake’ and allowing something to happen will usually get you into far greater trouble than making a ‘mistake’ and not allowing something to happen. People will see the results of the former, and blame you, but are unlikely to see the consequences, even if far worse, of the latter. So it is with the Food and Drug Administration.”

2. POLITICS

Pollsters survey likely primary voters on the issues they value most highly.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on where energy and environment issues rank:

“In Iowa, a state where ethanol and energy are important issues, too few people to register mentioned global warming as the most important issue in determining their choice of candidate. Taking the top two issues together, 4 percent said the Environment, 3 percent said Energy/Ethanol and 2 percent global warming.”

3. BUSINESS

The House of Representatives passes an “absurdly patronizing” bill to change mortgage loan regulations.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on the up side to the bill’s passage:

“Now for the good news, or silver lining. 127 members of the House — all GOP — stood their ground and voted against the bill. That’s way better than in 2002, when only three voted against the draconian Sarbanes-Oxley Act stampeded through Congress after the Enron scandal. (The three were Rep. Ron Paul,R-Texas; Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and then-Rep. Mac Collins, R-Ga.). The 127 were mostly members of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), often the free-market conscience of the Congress.”

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

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