GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Big Government Kills People

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Whenever someone like me says, “You know, Government is too big, too expensive, and costs too much and we should take a hard look at the things Government does badly and remove Government from doing those things,” the inevitable response from the Progressive Left is, “So, you want to destroy the Government and live under Somalian warlords.” Because, obviously, there is no middle ground between gigantic Government with armies of bureaucrats invading every aspect of life and living in burned out cities under the control of warlords. (Which is also kind of what you get when you have unrestrained progressive left governance, but I digress.)

But anyway, one thing the progressive left insists on is that the Food and Drug Administration is absolutely essential because without it, corporations would poison our food and drugs because killing and sickening your customer base means only one thing… massive profits. (Progressives… really don’t get how business or economics works.)

But consider this: The FDA is a gigantic Government bureaucracy with monopolistic control over the USA’s supply of medicinal drugs. Here’s the death-count of people who died while waiting for FDA bureaucrats to approve drugs that had already been proven safe and effective.

  • 40,000 people died of colo-rectal cancer while the FDA stalled approval of the drug Eloxatin.
  • 179,000 people dead from cancer while FDA stalled approval of the drug Erbitux.
  • 74,000 patients with terminal cancers died while FDA stalled approval of the drug Revlimid.
  • 20,000 patients with kidney cancer while FDA stalled approval of the drugs Nexavar and Sutent
  • 360,000 lung and colo-rectal cancer patients died while FDA stalled approval of the drug Avastin.
  • 102,000 lung cancer patients died while FDA stalled approval of the drug Tarceva .
  • 26,000 patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma while FDA stalled approval of the drug Bexxar
  • 249,000 lung cancer patients died while FDA stalled approval of the drug Alimta

It seems axiomatic that if a person is faced with a terminal illness, they and their physician should have access to any reasonably available treatment. Even if the drug doesn’t work, how would a terminal patient be any worse off for trying it. But the primary mission of any bureaucracy is to grow and perpetuate itself. The FDA doesn’t give a damn about cancer patients; it gives a damn about growing its workforce and its budget. Promptly approving cancer drugs does not achieve that objective.

Comments

  3. How much of this is FDA foot-dragging and how much is in response to our litigious society (and the FDA avoiding taking the fall when a drug turns out to be dangerous)? No one gets fired for not approving something.

    Perhaps the FDA simply reflects our society, public and private. Having to manage my parents’ affairs has given me a deep loathing for private businesses that force me to remain on hold forever (after getting past the useless automated attendant), repeat information over and over, and still don’t make address changes and such that I request.

    Amazingly enough, the most helpful outfits I’ve dealt with include AT&T (wouldn’t have guessed that) and the IRS and SS Administration. Their state taxing agency was very helpful when I needed to handle some tax issues.

    Banks are the absolute worst – I have to beg them to facilitate payments they’re owed.

    As Mark Steyn has commented, the nation is seizing up. It’s been said we can no longer put men on the moon. I believe it.