A new survey by the Wall Street Journal and the Harris Poll finds that the FDA – once esteemed as an independent arbiter of health and safety – no longer has the faith of a majority of Americans. FDA, which regulates about 25 percent of the American economy, now commands respect from only a third of those polled, with 58 percent saying it does only a fair or poor job and 82 percent believing that politics, not science, influences the agency’s decisions.
While the public may unjustly sneer at its leaders, day by day government unjustly sneers back, dismissing people’s demand for evidence-based policy — whether it is FDA’s refusal to allow over-the-counter sale of the morning-after pill, the president’s promise to veto stem cell research funding favored by 72 percent of the public, or the state of Wisconsin’s cheese-headed belief that requiring the teaching of abstinence will somehow cut down the rate of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers.
When a politician campaigns this fall claiming that government is the problem and not the solution, you are probably staring the problem in the face.