Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Ellen Ratner
The president likes to talk about an "ownership society." Mr. Bush has a bold ownership agenda. It spans the American economic landscape from retirements to tax code to education and even to the skies by his support for privatizing the nation's Air Traffic Control services. His policies reflect an attitude that government should facilitate, not regulate. If you don't believe me, take a look at the pharmaceutical industry.

Big Pharma is need of a giant aspirin to cure its giant head ache brought on by lawsuits more numerous than Carter's Little Liver Pills. The pharmaceutical industry has a well-documented "partnership" with the U.S. government. The National Institute of Health's budget has soared four-fold during the Bush administration. These tax dollars go to partner with private industry so they can charge us more for their services and drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for approving drugs, but the people who sign on the dotted approval line are often the same people who benefit from financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. One of the legislators who championed the Medicare Prescription Drug bill and created billions of dollars of taxpayer debt isn't a legislator anymore. Where is he working? Three guesses.

Yes, Representative Billy Tauzin, R-La., is president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a powerful drug-industry trade association. Billy used to make $158,000 a year as a little ol' U.S. congressman. Now, he is reported to be pulling in $2 million a year in his great new job. By the way, he will still draw a retirement from the taxpayers due to his wonderful service to his country as a U.S. congressman.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to making money. But I am opposed to profit on the backs of taxpayers. What is worse is we aren't just talking about losing a few tax dollars or jacking the federal deficit up a few billion dollars. The problem is that this cozy relationship between business and government is now killing people. Do the names Celebrex, Bexta or Voixx ring a bell? These drugs carry the side effect of death in some patients. Yet, they are have been put back on the shelf thanks to Big Pharma's pals at the FDA.

According to Friday's front-page New York Times, 10 of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers. If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would have voted 12 to 8 that Bexta should be withdrawn. And without those consultants' votes, Vioxx would have also not returned to the market.

Yes. I agree with the president: He is creating an ownership society. The public and private sector work hand in hand. We have a society where the private sector owns the public sector. A major turn of events has happened in our country – industry now not only determines the destiny of taxpayer dollars, but the destiny of taxpayers themselves.