The Health Freedom Movement On American Politics

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Obama, Dingell, Waxman, Kennedy, and Durbin Have Control of Decisions That Will Impact Your Health Freedom of ChoiceBy Lee BechtelNHF National LobbyistThe November 4th elections in the United States have just concluded and many people throughout the World are celebrating what they see as wonderful news. Yet, lost in the glow is the very real fact that the Congressional and Executive Branch public-policy impact of the elections will not be favorable for health freedom. For health-freedom advocates and their Washington Representatives, the election of Barack Obama as our next President is troubling, but it is probably not the worst of the "change" that is coming to the nation's capital. The increased control of Congress by Congressional Democrats is the bigger threat to health freedoms, all across the public-policy board.The National Health Federation (NHF) is a strictly non-partisan organization, with members who are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, and Independents of all stripes, shades, and colors, and we do not take a position on any candidate for office. What the NHF does take a position on is health freedom and health-freedom policy; and what we have noticed over the many decades of our existence is the fact that the Democratic Party - all media hype aside - is the most anti-health freedom party in America. Bar none, they hate us and what we stand for.In the upcoming 111th Congressional session, covering the next two years, the Democrats will have 30 more votes than are needed (218) to pass legislation in the House, with a total of 248 Democratic members. Equally important is the margin of Democratic control in the Senate, totalling 12 Senators. Senate Republicans can only filibuster or block legislation up for passage, but Democrats only need four Senators to prevent this.At the Congressional committee level, the news just gets worse. A change in the total party membership level in each House of Congress also changes the balance of power of party membership on each of the committees, and subcommittees, in each chamber. Over the next two years, the Dingell-Waxman control over the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has oversight and control over the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will increase by 6 positions. The Democrats will gain 3 positions and the Republicans will lose 3 seats, giving Dingell and Waxman a net majority of 11 members on the Committee. The ratio of Democratic committee members on the Senate HELP committee, controlled by Senator Kennedy will move upward by a few more seats as well. But, if the upcoming House and Senate party leadership elections don't change, Senator Dick Durbin, a close ally and mentor to now President Barack Obama, will remain as the Deputy Majority Leader, the Number 2 position, in Senate leadership positions.In the Senate, only 51 votes are needed to pass legislation, giving Senate Democrats (including Independents Bernie and Joe Lieberman, who typically vote with the Democrats) a five-vote margin when it comes to legislation threatening health freedom of choice, the FDA, dietary supplements, and the like.On the health-freedom, Congressional-supporter front, post-2008 election results, none of the Senate's key supporters were affected. Senator Dick Durbin did get reelected for another six-year term. And on the House side, there have been sixteen Representatives that have consistently been supportive of curbing the power of the FDA with regard to dietary supplements. Of these 16, three were not reelected. Of the remaining 13 who were, six are Democrats and seven are Republicans. Collectively, these 13 are only 6 percent of the total minimum number of votes needed to block legislation in the House. Unfortunately, none of these 13 are in committee or party leadership positions and are not expected to be in the new Congress. So what does this mean for the health-freedom community? This means that more effective outreach and lobbying of Congress will be needed over the next two years. It means more aggressive grassroots lobbying of all Congressional representatives to prevent the drug-like regulation of dietary supplements by the FDA, for starters. Next year, Congressman Dingell will reintroduce his FDA food safety bill which was a back-door effort to regulate supplements. Remember the previous Durbin legislation, the Son-of-Durbin bill, and his Food Safety Agency legislation that would have left supplements under the control of the FDA, but with no authority but to regulate them like drugs? And there could be other equally-scurrilous attempts to circumvent or directly repeal the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that has protected many of our health freedoms for these many years. Even at that, I have not touched on pending FDA regulatory issues over which a Democratically-controlled Congress will have power over. Some organizations in the health-freedom community may very likely "walk away from these political and legislative challenges." The NHF is not one of these and will act as it always has to be a suitable defender of health freedom. Congressional and Executive Branch political and legislative change presents dangers, but it also could present opportunities. Importantly, trying to reform the FDA - as a couple of health-freedom organizations have suggested - is not one of those opportunities, certainly not in this congressional environment where there would be no real opposition to any attempt by the Democratic Congress to repeal DSHEA while it is "reforming" the FDA. For the health-freedom community, and the organizations involved, not participating in meeting these challenges should not be an acceptable option. If the health-freedom voice is not heard and is not lobbied on in Congress, the anti-supplement, pro-FDA control, pro-pharmaceutical, anti-nutritional foods, and health-freedom opponents in general will win by legislative-influence default in the coming two years and thereafter. From my personal and professional perspective, while things may not appear to be favorable in the near term, this is most definitely not the time to give up. The health-freedom community must continue to stand up. It cannot afford to quit because it thinks it may already have lost the game in the upcoming session of Congress.

********National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government restrictions. The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate status at Codex meetings.

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[Guest guest]

Click here: The One Click Group - News Archives

Obama, Dingell, Waxman, Kennedy, and Durbin Have Control of Decisions That Will Impact Your Health Freedom of ChoiceBy Lee BechtelNHF National LobbyistThe November 4th elections in the United States have just concluded and many people throughout the World are celebrating what they see as wonderful news. Yet, lost in the glow is the very real fact that the Congressional and Executive Branch public-policy impact of the elections will not be favorable for health freedom. For health-freedom advocates and their Washington Representatives, the election of Barack Obama as our next President is troubling, but it is probably not the worst of the "change" that is coming to the nation's capital. The increased control of Congress by Congressional Democrats is the bigger threat to health freedoms, all across the public-policy board.The National Health Federation (NHF) is a strictly non-partisan organization, with members who are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, and Independents of all stripes, shades, and colors, and we do not take a position on any candidate for office. What the NHF does take a position on is health freedom and health-freedom policy; and what we have noticed over the many decades of our existence is the fact that the Democratic Party - all media hype aside - is the most anti-health freedom party in America. Bar none, they hate us and what we stand for.In the upcoming 111th Congressional session, covering the next two years, the Democrats will have 30 more votes than are needed (218) to pass legislation in the House, with a total of 248 Democratic members. Equally important is the margin of Democratic control in the Senate, totalling 12 Senators. Senate Republicans can only filibuster or block legislation up for passage, but Democrats only need four Senators to prevent this.At the Congressional committee level, the news just gets worse. A change in the total party membership level in each House of Congress also changes the balance of power of party membership on each of the committees, and subcommittees, in each chamber. Over the next two years, the Dingell-Waxman control over the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has oversight and control over the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will increase by 6 positions. The Democrats will gain 3 positions and the Republicans will lose 3 seats, giving Dingell and Waxman a net majority of 11 members on the Committee. The ratio of Democratic committee members on the Senate HELP committee, controlled by Senator Kennedy will move upward by a few more seats as well. But, if the upcoming House and Senate party leadership elections don't change, Senator Dick Durbin, a close ally and mentor to now President Barack Obama, will remain as the Deputy Majority Leader, the Number 2 position, in Senate leadership positions.In the Senate, only 51 votes are needed to pass legislation, giving Senate Democrats (including Independents Bernie and Joe Lieberman, who typically vote with the Democrats) a five-vote margin when it comes to legislation threatening health freedom of choice, the FDA, dietary supplements, and the like.On the health-freedom, Congressional-supporter front, post-2008 election results, none of the Senate's key supporters were affected. Senator Dick Durbin did get reelected for another six-year term. And on the House side, there have been sixteen Representatives that have consistently been supportive of curbing the power of the FDA with regard to dietary supplements. Of these 16, three were not reelected. Of the remaining 13 who were, six are Democrats and seven are Republicans. Collectively, these 13 are only 6 percent of the total minimum number of votes needed to block legislation in the House. Unfortunately, none of these 13 are in committee or party leadership positions and are not expected to be in the new Congress. So what does this mean for the health-freedom community? This means that more effective outreach and lobbying of Congress will be needed over the next two years. It means more aggressive grassroots lobbying of all Congressional representatives to prevent the drug-like regulation of dietary supplements by the FDA, for starters. Next year, Congressman Dingell will reintroduce his FDA food safety bill which was a back-door effort to regulate supplements. Remember the previous Durbin legislation, the Son-of-Durbin bill, and his Food Safety Agency legislation that would have left supplements under the control of the FDA, but with no authority but to regulate them like drugs? And there could be other equally-scurrilous attempts to circumvent or directly repeal the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) that has protected many of our health freedoms for these many years. Even at that, I have not touched on pending FDA regulatory issues over which a Democratically-controlled Congress will have power over. Some organizations in the health-freedom community may very likely "walk away from these political and legislative challenges." The NHF is not one of these and will act as it always has to be a suitable defender of health freedom. Congressional and Executive Branch political and legislative change presents dangers, but it also could present opportunities. Importantly, trying to reform the FDA - as a couple of health-freedom organizations have suggested - is not one of those opportunities, certainly not in this congressional environment where there would be no real opposition to any attempt by the Democratic Congress to repeal DSHEA while it is "reforming" the FDA. For the health-freedom community, and the organizations involved, not participating in meeting these challenges should not be an acceptable option. If the health-freedom voice is not heard and is not lobbied on in Congress, the anti-supplement, pro-FDA control, pro-pharmaceutical, anti-nutritional foods, and health-freedom opponents in general will win by legislative-influence default in the coming two years and thereafter. From my personal and professional perspective, while things may not appear to be favorable in the near term, this is most definitely not the time to give up. The health-freedom community must continue to stand up. It cannot afford to quit because it thinks it may already have lost the game in the upcoming session of Congress.

********National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government restrictions. The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate status at Codex meetings.

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