Categorical Aperitif

Just get those pesky old courts and regulators outta the way so big bidness can get its freak on:

THE Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday limiting lawsuits by patients over medical devices comes just as independent groups have raised questions about the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to ensure the safety of these products.

The Institute of Medicine, the Government Accountability Office and the F.D.A.’s own science board have all issued reports concluding that poor management and scientific inadequacies have made the agency incapable of protecting the country against unsafe drugs, medical devices and food.

A result, said David Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, is that the public is facing the worst of both worlds: a government health agency that cannot protect them and rules that block them from winning compensation when injured.

[...]

The politics of these cases are bewildering, said Susan P. Frederick, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Republican administrations generally advocate limited regulation and deference to state oversight, Ms. Frederick said. But in what she said was its push to reduce court damage awards, the administration has written a blizzard of rules that do just the opposite.

“This is shocking to us because usually Republicans align quite nicely with our federalism policy,” she said.

Yes, we're shocked, shocked! to find the Bush Administration siding with corporations over citizens and states.

One might as well be shocked to find corpses when the sheepfold is run by wolves.