FDA tyranny to become law: HR.2900 analysis by Richards and Adams

[Guest guest]

FDA tyranny to become law:

HR.2900 analysis by Richards and Adams

http://www.newstarget.com/021932.html

 

On July 11, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2900, blocking

debate on the law and preventing the introduction of any amendments that might

have provided meaningful drug safety protections for consumers. This action

demonstrates that the House of Representatives, much like the Senate, is

utterly controlled by Big Pharma and has abandoned any responsibility to defend

the

interests of the voters. Drug companies now have complete control over the

U.S. Congress, and through a campaign of intense lobbying and financial

influence, they have managed to easily water down a law that once proposed to

end the

American monopoly on pharmaceuticals and ban advertising on new drugs.

 

Instead of placing new restrictions on Big Pharma and the increasingly

dangerous power of the FDA, this new law (a combination of HR.2900 and S.1082,

when

it is hammered out in conference) grants more power to the FDA while deepening

the financial ties between the agency and drug companies. The law effectively

surrenders America to a system of medical tyranny under which a

criminally-operated FDA will continue to promote pharmaceuticals, censor

nutritional

education and discredit alternatives that threaten drug company profits. Nothing

in

the new law protects consumers' access to dietary supplements or natural

medicine.

 

Got a law? Make it weaker

 

The House version of the bill is stronger than the Senate version in terms of

drug safety issues, but these differences could easily disappear in

conference, leading to a final signing of a useless, watered-down " FDA safety "

bill

that is actually nothing more than an FDA corruption rewards program. (It's

better than a frequent flyer program because the miles never expire and there

are

no blackout dates...)

 

While the House version would require the publishing of a clinical trials

database (which shouldn't even be debatable, it should be full disclosure by

default) and limit the number of bribed FDA officials who can sit on a drug

decision panel to one, even these provisions are laughable in the fact that none

of

them actually require drug companies or the FDA to act with integrity or

defend the health and safety of the American public.

 

The great Congressional sellout

 

Congress had the potential to pass a really good law here -- one that would

have ended direct-to-consumer advertising, banned conflicts of interest at the

FDA, required the open source publication of drug trials and ended the U.S.

monopoly on pharmaceuticals. Instead, Congress chose to do none of these things.

It staged a song and dance about " FDA reform " while selling out the future of

America's health to a tiny but powerful group of ultra-wealthy corporations

that now virtually rule this country. There is nothing in the new law worth

celebrating unless, of course, you are the CEO or major shareholder of a Big

Pharma corporation, in which case you will like be stunned at just how cheaply

and

easily U.S. lawmakers can be bought.

 

Notice, too, that this sellout crosses party lines and involves both

Democrats and Republicans. Only one Congressman, Rep. Ron Paul (a

Libertarian-leaning

Republican), was attempting to introduce meaningful amendments that would

protect the interests of the people. His efforts were blocked by Speaker of the

House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.

 

FDA reform legislation is not about Democrats vs. Republicans. It's about the

wealthy elite vs. the People. Not surprisingly, the People have once again

been screwed by the representatives they foolishly voted into office. If

anything, this event proves that U.S. lawmakers have no interest in protecting

America's future. They are only interested in the next election, the next career

move or the next power play. In a nation devastated by degenerative disease and

intoxicated by the chemicals being pushed to manage those diseases, there is no

longer anyone left in power with enough sanity to reason with. The President

is clinically insane, the FDA is criminally insane, and the Congress is for

sale, cheap! The country has become an absurdity, where lawmakers actually

bicker about how much bribery and corruption should be allowed in the FDA drug

approval decision process rather than simply agreeing to ban all bribery and

conflicts of interest, which is what sane lawmakers would do.

 

Stand back and watch the bonfire

 

Over the last few months, I have come to the conclusion that it is no longer

worth attempting to stop American's self-destruction at the hands of Big

Pharma, corrupt politicians and greedy fractional reserve bankers. America is

destroying itself, and there is no one left who's willing to stand up and try to

stop it (except, perhaps, for a few individuals like Rep. Ron Paul, but he's

effectively censored by the powers that be).

 

My advice to readers is to start thinking very seriously about getting out of

America. What's coming over the next 5 - 25 years will not be pretty, and I

now believe the collapse of America as we know it today is inevitable. The 2008

elections will change nothing, as either party will only deliver a different

form of tyranny in the end. America has devolved into a modern mirror image of

the Roman Empire in its last dying days -- steeped in corruption, abandoning

its citizens, arrogant beyond all reason, oblivious to the world around it and

wholly committed to destroying itself from within.

 

Congress has become a circus, and the U.S. government, through agencies like

the FDA, has become the leading threat to its own people. The nation is

steeped in irreversible debt, diseased, terrified, bankrupt and addicted to oil

that's running out. On top of that, thanks to Bush-contrived military

imperialism,

it has alienated every other nation in the world and has now become the

most-hated nation on the planet. (If you don't believe me, just travel outside

the

U.S. and ask practically anybody you meet. Everybody hates the U.S.) It is now

only a question of how long the current crippled facade of political power

will last.

 

The passage of this FDA reform law is merely one more sign of how thoroughly

committed the U.S. Congress is to creating a future of death, disease and

bankruptcy for the American people. You gotta give 'em kudos on consistency,

however. At least the lawmakers are predictable.

 

Welcome to the United States of Big Pharma.

 

Comments by Byron Richards

 

On Wednesday, July 11, 2007 the House passed HR.2900 without allowing the Ron

Paul (R-TX) amendments to protect dietary supplements. Representatives Frank

Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), John Dingell (D-MI), Henry Waxman (D-CA), and others

falsely proclaimed that they were doing America a favor by passing this sweeping

FDA-supported legislation that grants the rouge agency more power and money,

and even transforms it into a quasi drug company.

 

Both the House and Senate (S.1082) have made the fatally flawed assumption

that the reason for so many deaths and injuries from drugs was due to the FDA's

lack of resources. In reality, it is the INTENTION of FDA management that is

the problem, combined with the simple fact that multiple drugs are extremely

toxic and don't work as advertised. Giving the FDA more power and money will

only cause the agency to speed more drugs onto the market faster with even less

safety testing -- while abusing its power and actively stamping out competition

to drugs.

 

FDA management is in bed with Big Pharma and this new legislation makes

matters significantly worse through the creation of the Reagan-Udall Foundation

for

the FDA. This new entity places the FDA in charge of drug design, drug

patents, drug licenses, and the creation of new marketing entities/companies.

Such a

relationship with private industry is an unprecedented conflict of interest,

totally at odds with drug safety. The current commissioner of the FDA, Andrew

von Eschenbach, M.D. is little more than a Big Biotech sales rep with massive

industry connections.

 

The House, like the Senate, will continue to allow direct to consumer

advertising of new drugs with unknown risks -- a flagrant safety risk that will

cost

many people their lives. Congressional leaders said they couldn't prevent this

advertisement for fear of violating the first amendment rights of drug

companies. What a joke. The FDA routinely squashes the first amendment rights of

American citizens to understand natural health options and the science that

explains how they can prevent and treat disease. Thus, the first amendment

argument

is simply a matter of convenience. The FDA wants to actively suppress

information that will help people, yet allow highly risky and misleading

promotion of

toxic substances often for untested uses. The FDA even wants to prevent

citizens from suing drug companies when they are injured, thus protecting Big

Pharma. FDA tyranny, based on this type of arbitrary and unrestrained exercise

of

power, is used to promote and protect the pharmaceutical industry while at the

same time undermining the dietary supplement industry.

 

Both the House and Senate think it is completely fine that the drug industry

pay the FDA fees so that the FDA can approve new drugs faster. Indeed, the FDA

and Big Pharma met 112 times to work out their partnership before the FDA let

Congress know what it wanted to see in HR.2900 and S.1082. This is like

paying the mob for protection. A careful look at the history of the FDA shows it

is

little more than a bully that protects vested interests at the expense of

human health. It is a pitiful agency. It is little wonder than the majority of

Americans don't trust the FDA.

 

Big Pharma owns the FDA and Congress. The drug industry sees FDA management

and Congressional leaders as a training pool for future Big Pharma jobs --

based on how well Big Pharma is supported. There will certainly be plenty of

rewards to pass out after this legislation becomes law.

 

It is a sick situation that this new fake safety legislation provides the FDA

with unprecedented new power to stamp out competition to drug companies as

well as expose Americans to far greater safety risks than ever before.

Provisions within the legislation that creates the Reagan-Udall Foundation for

the FDA

will allow the FDA to remove any dietary supplement from the market based on

its whim.

 

It is now only a matter of time and a formality before HR.2900 and S.1082

become law. There will be a little bit of haggling in the conference committee,

as Big Pharma will takes its last chance at watering down any meaningful reform

(of which there is very little). Big Pharma will whine that this legislation

is too tough on them, which is a fallacy. This legislation is the Big Pharma

dream come true. In a football analogy the only question is the final score.

Will Big Pharma win by 28-7 or will it win by 42-7. Big Pharma has just cleaned

the clock of Americans. We should not forget the gutless Congressional puppets

that made it happen.

 

A new tone has been set. A new chart has been plotted. Congress has

transformed the FDA into a quasi drug company with unprecedented new regulatory

power

to control all health options in America. How many deaths and injuries will it

take for a comatose and medicinally-overdosed public to wake up?