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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (37886)	9/16/2010 10:39:59 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 103300

The Era Of Health Care Rationing Begins By SALLY C. PIPES Posted 06:17 PM ET Supporters of health reform said it would never happen. Maybe they got caught up in their own rhetoric. Maybe they just didn't want to believe it was possible. But rationing in America has started. This week, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to revoke approval of the drug Avastin for the treatment of advanced breast cancer. Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter has described the anticipated move as "the beginning of a slippery slope leading to more and more rationing under the government takeover of health care." It seems that even loyal Democrats have noticed the Obama administration's not-so-subtle policy shift toward rationing. According to Politico, many of the 34 House Democrats who voted against the health reform bill are aggressively touting their "no" votes in campaign ads. The FDA claims its decision won't be based on cost, but Avastin isn't cheap — a full regimen costs about $100,000 a year. Jean Grem of the FDA's Oncology Drug Advisory Committee was cited in the Wall Street Journal explaining why she voted to deprive breast-cancer patients of Avastin: "We aren't supposed to talk about cost, but that's another issue." Two years ago, the FDA approved Avastin for breast cancer on the condition that further research would show the drug extended life expectancy. Everyone expected the drug to maintain its approval. Avastin has proven to be a wonder drug for countless women with stage IV breast cancer, slowing the disease's progression and dramatically extending life. But when no significant increase in "overall survivability" was reported this summer, an FDA advisory panel recommended that Avastin's approval be withdrawn. Top FDA officials must decide by Friday whether they will accept or reject the panel's counsel. No cancer drug has ever been taken off the market based solely on "overall survivability." Traditionally, calculations of a drug's effectiveness have been based on tumor response and progression-free survival rates. Here, Avastin is a miracle drug. In the manufacturer's critical phase III study, tumors shrank in nearly 50% of patients receiving the medicine. Patients who received Avastin in conjunction with chemotherapy lived nearly twice as long as would otherwise be expected without their disease worsening. For some patients — known as "super-responders" — an Avastin regime translates into years of additional life. If the FDA strips Avastin of its approval, it's likely that private insurers and Medicare would stop covering the medicine, effectively removing Avastin from the anti-breast cancer arsenal Government rationing doesn't stop at Avastin. Medicare coverage for Provenge, a drug for advanced prostate cancer, is also in jeopardy. Like Avastin, Provenge is expensive. Created using a patient's own white blood cells, the drug costs $93,000. The FDA has already approved Provenge as safe and effective, yet Medicare officials are currently deciding whether it will pay for the medicine. If officials decide Provenge isn't worth covering, it will mark the first time Medicare has refused to pay for an FDA-approved anti-cancer drug. The outrage over the administration's campaign against expensive but effective drugs has not been muted. Major cancer advocacy groups like Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance have come out in strong support of both Avastin and Provenge. It's terrifying to think that distant, faceless bureaucrats are now making Americans' health care decisions. Welcome to Obama-Care. • Pipes is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute. Her new book, "The Truth About Obamacare" (Regnery), was just released.

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (37886)	9/16/2010 10:40:30 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Reid's DREAM Rider Posted 07:07 PM ET Politics: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has hit a new low by slipping an amnesty plan for illegal immigrants into a defense funding bill. In effect, he's holding U.S. troops hostage to advance his own political career. Longtime members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are shuddering at the way the defense budget has become a Christmas tree for political ornaments. Since last year, Democrats have used appropriations for U.S. troops in Afghanistan to attach riders that couldn't otherwise pass muster. Now Reid has hung the ugliest ornament of them all — the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act — and has scheduled a vote on it next week. "This is an all-time low for me being in the Senate, and that's saying something," committee member Lindsay Graham told Foreign Policy magazine. "The one area that's been kept off limits from partisan politics has been the defense of our nation. To say that you're going to bring up a defense bill and put the DREAM Act on it ... to me is very offensive." But Reid, D-Nev., apparently couldn't care less. He sees a political payoff — for himself — by offering amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants via the DREAM Act in a bid to energize the Latino vote. As representative of the state with the highest number of illegal immigrants (as well as the highest unemployment rate at 14.2%), Reid is hoping he can break away from Republican challenger Sharron Angle in his own dead-heat reelection race by delivering amnesty to that constituency. He's also betting that Republicans will be forced to go along because of their strong support of the military. Reid has also slipped in a second rider, this one for ending the Pentagon's "don't ask-don't tell" policy on gay servicemen without waiting for the military's input. Both riders stand to wreak havoc in the U.S. if this bill passes. The act is outright amnesty for the children of illegal immigrants, and offers a no-penalty path to citizenship for anyone connected with them. It says that any child of an illegal who arrives in the U.S. before age 16, spends five years here and completes two years of college or military service in a six-year span without felonies gets a green card ahead of others who have waited patiently for their papers. They will have access to taxpayer-funded loans and grants, and may crowd out children of U.S. citizens at state and community colleges. They are not required to pay back the loans, learn English or maintain a decent GPA. They can start the process up to age 35, and get six years to finish a mere two years of college or military service. And once they've been granted citizenship, they can bring all their relatives to the U.S. in what will be the mother of chain migrations. Even worse, there's no cutoff date on when an illegal immigrant can begin the process, so the bill becomes a dinner triangle to would-be immigrants everywhere to ship their teenagers to the states before they turn 16. Mexican cartels that smuggle illegals for $10,000 a pop must be slavering at the possible new business. Thanks to an effective propaganda campaign based on sob stories from immigrant lobbies, most of these facts about the DREAM Act aren't well-known. But make no mistake: The legislation as written amounts to amnesty for almost everyone. This may be why, despite the measure being around the Senate for seven years, it has never garnered enough votes for passage. It has come close, but public opposition has stopped it when the facts are made known. That should be the result when Reid selfishly tries to get away with it again next week.