Friday, January 16, 2004
White House now wants control over health and safety warnings
In a move to further usurp the powers of federal regulatory agencies, the White House now wants to control when warnings affecting health and safety are issued to the public, and to manage all scientific and technical peer reviews.
It isn't enough that the Bush administration has replaced qualified scientists and other experts with political hacks, religious fruitcakes and corporate buddies, now it wants the Office of Management and Budget to have the final say in areas it knows nothing about.
Warnings about the danger of a prescription drug, a medical device, a nuclear accident, a release of a toxic chemical or a biological, even mad cow disease would be at the pleasure of OMB, which undoubtedly would delay while weighing the cost of such disclosures to business versus the value of your life. Remember, the airlines used to calculate what your life was worth against the cost of installing safety devices.
OMB claims Congress has ordered it "to take 'a greater role in evaluating what the agencies do,'" according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
It isn't enough that the Bush administration has replaced qualified scientists and other experts with political hacks, religious fruitcakes and corporate buddies, now it wants the Office of Management and Budget to have the final say in areas it knows nothing about.
Warnings about the danger of a prescription drug, a medical device, a nuclear accident, a release of a toxic chemical or a biological, even mad cow disease would be at the pleasure of OMB, which undoubtedly would delay while weighing the cost of such disclosures to business versus the value of your life. Remember, the airlines used to calculate what your life was worth against the cost of installing safety devices.
OMB claims Congress has ordered it "to take 'a greater role in evaluating what the agencies do,'" according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
