House Republicans vote to cut funds to implement food safety law
“Arguing that the U.S. food supply is 99 percent safe, House Republicans cut millions of dollars Thursday from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget, denying the agency money to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress.
“Saying the cuts were needed to lower the national deficit, the House also reduced funding to the Agriculture Department’s food safety inspection service, which oversees meat, poultry and some egg products. And lawmakers chopped $832 million from an emergency feeding program for poor mothers, infants and children. Hunger groups said that change would deny emergency nutrition to about 325,000 mothers and children…
“To carry out the new law, President Obama is seeking $955 million the FDA’s food safety program in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
“Republican leaders in the House pared back that to $750 million, which is $87 million less than the agency currently is receiving for food safety.
“They also shaved $35 million from the USDA’s food safety and inspection service.
“Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the agriculture appropriations bill, said the cuts to food safety were justified because the nation’s food supply was “99.99 percent safe.”
“Do we believe that McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Safeway and Kraft Food and any brand name that you think of, that these people aren’t concerned about food safety?” Kingston said on the House floor. “The food supply in America is very safe because the private sector self-polices, because they have the highest motivation. They don’t want to be sued, they don’t want to go broke. They want their customers to be healthy and happy.”
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 48 million Americans get sick from tainted food every year. Of those, about 28,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die, the government says…”
Cassi Creek:
Reading this report of the GOP/teavangelist position, I have come to the only possible conclusion that anyone with experience as an American consumer, of the former middle class, can reach. The GOP, aided by the teavangelists, has declared war upon any American citizen who does not join them in support of their war on the middle class.
I can relate long years of microbiology bench time isolating enteric pathogens purchased by innocent and unsuspecting consumers from fast food chain stores and from produce counters all over the country. CDC’s estimate of 48 million instances of food-borne illness/year is low, perhaps by as much as 50%. Many instances are mild, resolve without further progression to more intense and virulent illness, and thus go unreported. With incubation periods that vary in length, with both infections and intoxications to diagnose, treat, and enumerate; CDC’s ability to provide accurate infection rates is only as good as the local health care system and the memories of a patient population that can rarely recall what they had for dinner every night for the last two weeks.
Cutting funding for public health and social safety nets is despicable. There are many subsidy programs that can be de-funded. Subsidies to oil companies are a good place to start. No oil baron will go hungry if his subsidies are reduced. Rep. Bachman might not have been needed to serve as a foster parent if the WIC program was well funded. The farm subsidies she and her family receive would feed a lot of infants. What does she raise on her farmland, anyway?
As for defunding the FDA, and WIC, I fail to understand how any physician can vote against such programs. But our good congressperson Roe seems to lack any form of conscience. He is well tuned into the current teavangelist party line, “Let them get sick and die quickly.” He is old enough to recall why seniors found Medicare so valuable but he is quite willing to abolish Medicare and stand applauding as the life expectancy of American citizens plummets back to ranges found in third world countries. After all, someone might outlive his or her ability to work in a GOP backer’s factory.
We have national enemies who have no scruples concerning the release of biologic agents into our food chain. E. coli and Salmonella aren’t the only bacteria we need to worry about. Hepatitis A & B can be spread via fast food quite rapidly. Cholera, un-diagnosed and untreated, can kill within 24 hours. FDA and CDC are actually critical agencies in our national security apparatus. No foreign power or terrorist agency is poised and eager to do as much harm to this nation as is the GOP/teavangelists mob. Thanks, Congress. Those microscopic organisms exist whether your fundamentalist anti-science voter base believes in them or not. Be sure to wash your hands. I know where they’ve been.
Shabbat Shalom!
Shabbat Shalom!
“
No comments:
Post a Comment