The Food and Drug Administration—which has struggled to fulfill its mission of regulating food, drugs and other consumer goods that make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. economy—does not have the expertise to forecast its own budget needs, according to congressional investigators.
While many lawmakers and consumer advocates have long complained that the agency lacks the staff and equipment to accomplish its mission, the Government Accountability Office says the agency doesn’t even have “the data to develop a complete and reliable estimate of the resources it needs.”
The GAO places some of the blame on the FDA’s lopsided budget—which dedicates significant resources to approving new products, but far less to tracking their safety once they’ve reached the market.

FDA officials acknowledged the problems uncovered by the GAO, saying they are working to get a better picture of the agency’s spending and how much additional funding it needs.

“We have to be able to talk about the funds we need, and how we’re using the money, with more detail than FDA has in the past,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the agency’s deputy commissioner.

The GAO report, due out Monday, is the latest in a series to document the problems facing the agency. The FDA has spent the last few years careening from one public health crisis to the next. They have included the recall of the painkiller Vioxx—which was linked to heart attacks, contaminated blood thinners imported from China, and an investigation into a salmonella outbreak that dragged on for weeks before peppers were identified as the culprit.

The agency’s product review program is largely funded by user fees from drug and medical device companies, while the company’s safety inspections are funded by taxpayer dollars. Over the last 10 years, funding from private companies increased nearly 270 percent, while funds from the U.S. government grew less than 70 percent.

Currently, the federal government pays for just over 30 percent of the FDA’s medical products budget. As a result, the FDA is approving more new products but is spending far less to make sure they are being used safely.

“The approval of new products has increasingly become the beneficiary of the agency’s budget,” according to the GAO report.

Between 2004 and 2008 the agency failed to inspect all U.S. drug manufacturing plants every two years, as required by law. In other areas, such as reviewing reports of negative drug side effects, the FDA could not even say how much money and manpower it spent.

Face Fwd Comments:
Hang on America this is part of the Obama Heath Care Plan.

Brought to you by the same people that manages the Social Security System

The Republicans responded to the Obama message that there was agreement between the political parties on among other things, healthcare. Below is an excerpt from the Republican response.

“A government takeover of health care will put bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions that should be made by families and doctors,” Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana said in the Republican radio and Internet message.

“It will limit treatment options and lead to rationed care. And to pay for government health care your taxes will be raised,” said Boustany, a cardiovascular surgeon and member of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group. “That is something we cannot support, and frankly, it would clearly violate some of the principles the president himself has endorsed.”

Face Fwd Comments:
I was getting worried as I read through the transcript of Obama’s speech reading like a plan had already been struck. Then I read the conservative response and was just a little relieved. It bothers me when I see Obama saying that the republicans agree that we need to overhaul our healthcare system. Are there deals being cut that we are not being informed on and our conservative representatives are just playing politics with speeches like Charles Boustany’s?

When they say “overhaul” what do they mean? I am convinced that Obama and his administration intend on making our healthcare system answer to the government and in some fashion be part of the government. When they say “overhaul” I am convinced that they mean increase my cost and my taxes while reducing my healthcare options so that they can provide healthcare to illegal aliens and their illegal children who were born here as well as those currently on some kind of government assistance.

I don’t want deserving citizens to go without medical care nor do I want people from other countries to be sick. However, at what point do we hit the tipping point when we can no longer pay and the whole system collapses. I like the analogy of a life boat from a sinking ship. The life boat can hold 10 people safely. The boat is overwhelmed with 12 people and may or may not make it. While trying to make it safely to shore another ship is damaged and starts sinking. Unfortunately, that ship has been poorly managed and has no life boats. As people from the poorly managed boat start swimming to the life boat what should the 12 people do? Invite them on board so they can all die? Get out of the boat and let the second group of people take their place? Who deserves to live and who deserves die. I know how I would feel if my family was on that boat. What would you do?

Government assistance is no longer a safety net as it was intended. It has become a lifestyle.

Taxpayers Strike Back With ‘Tea Parties’ Monday, March 16, 2009 By Bret Baier
Foxnews.com

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Police in Cincinnati say at least 4,000 people showed up Sunday for a grassroots protest of wasteful government spending in general, and President Obama’s stimulus package and budget in particular.

It was one of many tea party protests around the country — inspired by the Revolutionary War era Boston Tea Party protesting British taxation. Protesters had signs reading “Give us liberty, not debt” and “Where’s my bailout?”

One report states there are more than 150 tea parties scheduled across the nation in the upcoming months. The events so far have been largely ignored by the mainstream media, but several blogs are tracking them.

Noel Sheppard, associate editor for the conservative NewsBusters.org writes on the coverage so far: “Compare that to how these networks practically fell all over themselves to report war protests after the public’s opinion changed concerning Iraq in late 2003.”

Face Forward Comments:
The most appalling part of the article states, “They are largely ignored by mainstream media”.  If mainstream media is not going to cover this mainstream populace movement, then we are going to have to do it ourselves.  I suggest that everyone that has a blog, website, facebook page, linkedIn account or any other means of communicating to large numbers, share information. Use your email list and tweets to get the word out. If they (mainstream media) won’t cover us then we will cover and promote ourselves.

 ACORN to Play Role in 2010 Census
The U.S. Census Bureau is working with several national organizations to help recruit 1.4 million workers to produce the country’s 2010 census, including one with a history of voter fraud charges: ACORN.

The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year’s count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States — currently believed to be more than 306 million people.

 A U.S. Census “sell sheet,” an advertisement used to recruit national partners, says partnerships with groups like ACORN “play an important role in making the 2010 Census successful,” including by “help[ing] recruit census workers.”

The bureau is currently employing help from more than 250 national partners, including TARGET and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to assist in the hiring effort.

But ACORN’s partnership with the 2010 Census is worrisome to lawmakers who say past allegations of fraud should raise concerns about the organization.

“It’s a concern, especially when you look at all the different charges of voter fraud. And it’s not just the lawmakers’ concern. It should be the concern of every citizen in the country,” Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, R-Ga., vice ranking member of the subcommittee for the U.S. Census, told FOXNews.com. “We want an enumeration. We don’t want to have any false numbers.

ACORN, which claims to be a non-partisan grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people, came under fire in 2007 when Washington State filed felony charges against several paid ACORN employees and supervisors for more than 1,700 fraudulent voter registrations. In March 2008, an ACORN worker in Pennsylvania was sentenced for making 29 phony voter registration forms. The group’s activities were frequently questioned in the 2008 presidential election.

ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson told FOXNews.com that “ACORN as an organization has not been charged with any crime.” He added that fears that the organization will unfairly influence the census are unfounded.

Face Forward Comments:
Why is this headline so important?  No, it’s not, “At least if the government is going to pay them, they should work”!  It is that whoever controls the census controls the way voting districts are going to be drawn up for at least the next 10 years.  Read that as; what the make up of the Senate and House will look like.

When the districts in Texas and other states were redrawn to reflect the republican view of districts (gerrymandering) the Democrats were screaming like the wounded.  However, the redrawn districts stood and the courts upheld the new district shapes. 

The Dems don’t want that to happen again so guess what?   If you control the make up population size and shapes in certain urban/suburban sprawl areas and you control (for the most part) Congress, you can redraw the shapes of the districts giving yourself more liberal representatives. They will succeed in making it impossible for a conservative to win in any new district they draw.  Please note I said Conservative , not Republican.  We are still looking for a real Conservative Republican that will stand up for hisor her valuse not the latest popularity poll.

The other part of the plan to lock in power for the political left is to bring in all illegal aliens (IA) and make them citizens.  If the Democrats  make these poor, non-American, non-English speaking, and beholden people citizens, just how do you think they will vote?  Nancy Pelosi knows how they will vote that is why she has been all over the place pandering to them.  Let us not forget that she is trying to prevent the ICE officers from doing their jobs deporting those poor illegals.

Conservatives need to say “no” to political groups being involved in the census.  We also need to step up our grass roots movement.  While the Democratic left is much better funded by so called government grants, we are much more committed to our ideals.  If each of us will get involved we can find a way to return America to the American People.