Government Archives
Hysteria, not illness or death, drives gov't disease spending
By Michael Fumento
You've heard that the highly-drug resistant germ MRSA causes 94,000 U.S. invasive infections each year, with about 19,000 deaths. Here's what you haven't heard. As I write in the New York Sun, the government is doing practically nothing about it.
Meanwhile it's working mightily and spending the bank on three diseases that have yet to kill a single American and probably never will: Ebola virus, SARS, and avian flu. Federally-funded Ebola and SARS vaccines are in human trials and the government is already stockpiling FDA-approved avian flu vaccine. Yet government-funded MRSA vaccine research is still in mice.
One spending comparison: Congress has specifically earmarked $5.8 billion for avian flu, the threat of which continually recedes. Yet, although the CDC lists in addition to MRSA 8 important diseases connected to antibiotic resistance, the total annual budget for these is merely $221 million.
I conclude: "We need a government that pays more attention to medical statistics than to headlines. The one we have now is killing us."
November 8, 2007 12:26 PM · Permalink
Who should be the next pick for the Supremes?
By Michael Fumento
John Hawkins from Right Wing News is polling 50 blogers on who should be Pres. Bush's next Supreme Court nominee. I told him that despite being a lawyer I just don't keep up on these things. That said, I told him, "I do concur with the MSM that what's needed is more diversity. So let's find a bulemic Eskimo-Asian lesbian dwarf with a severe speech impediment."
September 29, 2005 11:36 AM · Permalink
NASA discovers time travel -- back to 1969
By Michael Fumento
What if the Dell and Apple computer companies announced an "ambitious" plan to produce desktops by 2018 that did what computers could do back in 1969? Then why is everybody going gaga over NASA's announcement that it would do the same with lunar landings? And while research that goes into desktop computers only takes funds from willing consumers, NASA's scheme will cost an "estimated" $104 billion. And you know the value of long-term government estimates. Lost in all the excitement is WHY we would want to do such a thing. The original moonshot was a powerful psychological boost during the Cold War but all we got out of it otherwise was a bunch of rocks. Just how many more moon rocks do we need? They might discover there really is cheese there, but then the dairy lobby would go nuts. Even NASA is at a loss for words for this incredible extravaganza. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin defended it as (I'm not making this up) a jobs program. He noted that it would employ many people along the Gulf Coast devastated by Katrina.
Speaking of which, isn't Pres. Bush looking for $200 billion in cuts from the budget to pay for Katrina recovery? But Griffin has an answer to that. "When you have a hurricane, we don't cancel the Air Force and we don't cancel the Navy. We're not going to cancel NASA," he said. In fact, despite the ongoing war on terrorism (Anybody remember that?) the Air Force and Navy were forced to make major cuts. Katrina? Terror? Name a needy project and it's almost certainly going to be more worthwhile than bringing back more darned rocks. Whatever purpose NASA once served, its main purpose now is self-perpetuation. It IS time to cancel NASA and divide its useful duties among other agencies and the private sector.
September 20, 2005 05:41 PM · Permalink
They deserted because they couldn't go pee?
By Michael Fumento
If you don't already know it, the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisana have made no mistakes either prior to or after Katrina's landfall. Everything is the fault of the feds. Explaining why 200 NO police have simply walked off the job, P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police, told the New York Times: "If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don't think you would be too happy either." They actually aren't getting into gun battles all day (to my knowledge, there's only been one so far) so what does that leave? Cops who cop out because they can't take a comfortable cr-p?
September 6, 2005 09:48 PM · Permalink
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Blame Bush for Katrina!
By Michael Fumento
I'm surprised nobody has yet blamed President Bush for causing Hurricane Katrina in order to wipe nutcase Cindy Sheehan off the pages of America's papers. Or maybe they have and I just haven't heard about it...
September 2, 2005 01:16 PM · Permalink
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Conservatives and government admonitions on obesity
By Michael Fumento
How should conservatives view government efforts against the obesity epidemic? This exchange might be useful.
Dear Mr. Fumento:
When getting someone else's comment about your obesity article at townhall.com, I heard that you are considered libertarian in your thinking. When I saw in the article, however, I sensed a strong dose of "Do Something". Don't throw away your conservatism on your war against obesity. Many people whom we call "liberals" are just conservatives who got all consumed on ONE issue that needs urgent government action. A government that has the right to tell you not to eat a big mac has the right to tell you what to do in your bedroom.
Billy [omitted]
Dear Billy:
Actually, in just the last few days hate mailers or bloggers have referred to me as "a liberal twirp" and a "neo-con" along with other things that are usually written out as &%$#^ or *&$#@+. But yes, I've also been called a libertarian. None of the above is true. I'm just an old-fashioned conservative, or to be more specific I refer to myself as a "Burkean conservative." Despite my disgust with politicians who call themselves conservatives and actually believe in nothing more than power and money, I will not "throw away" my core beliefs. On the other hand, you are the one who seems to be adopting the libertarian position that even government advice on food consumption is going too far. I'm sorry, but I draw a huge distinction between told something is bad for you and having a law passed against it. We have a Public Health Service for a reason – to protect public health. When it strays into areas like divorce, as the CDC has, it needs to be slapped down. When it lies, as it did about the AIDS epidemic, likewise. But weighing in (pardon the pun) on the second-greatest controllable cost of premature death seems to be exactly what public health people should be doing.
Sincerely,
Michael Fumento
July 15, 2005 08:31 PM · Permalink
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