Putting People First / November 5, 1993 ======================================= Washington Report FROM THE TRENCHES by Kathleen Marquardt Chairman, Putting People First ...A weekly opinion column about the struggle against "animal rights" and eco-extremists. Copyright 1993 Putting People First Permission to reproduce this column is freely granted on the condition that credit is given to Putting People First. Putting People First is a nonprofit organization of citizens who believe in rights for humans and welfare for animals, and who oppose the goals and tactics of "animal rights" and environmental extremism. ----------------------------------------------- Putting People First PO Box 1707 / 44 N. Last Chance Gulch Helena, Montana 59624 (406) 442-5700 Fax (406) 449-0942 ----------------------------------------------- I'M FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND I'M HERE TO HELP YOU -- NOT! First Lady Hillary Clinton is beginning a nationwide tour of shopping malls, talking about her proposed government health-care plan. The proposal has changed drastically since the first details were leaked, and no doubt will change more before Congress is through with it. But one thing is certain - to guarantee medical care to the estimated 37 million Americans now without health insurance, all Americans will have to pay higher taxes. Most medical problems in the United States today are the result of preventable causes. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders says some 18,000 Americans will die in drunken-driving accidents this year. Another 30,000 will die from AIDS. And an estimated 50,000 will die as a result of violence. Such escalating trends will threaten to bankrupt any taxpayer funded health care system. In the name of controlling medical problems and costs, government will have to seize more control over our "lifestyles." Already, the federal government is pressuring the states to stiffen mandatory seatbelt laws, lower speed limits, and even require crash helmets for bicyclists. Ms. Clinton has declared the White House a "smoke-free zone." And the President has announced that the nation's "number-one health priority" is stronger federal gun control, starting with passage of the Brady Bill. To help decide what sort of lifestyles to compel or ban, the government is conducting the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a $625 million study, estimated to take the next 15 years to complete. Among its purposes is to study the effects of meat and agricultural chemical residues on breast cancer. But a report by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, is highly skeptical of WHI. Much of the information could be obtained in better designed, smaller, more focused studies that could have a greater chance of success and probably be less costly, "says the report. Report editor Susan Thaul says the study is so flawed that taxpayers could "end up with something like the Hubble telescope" - a grandiose flop. The real danger is the politicization of science. may not resemble the Hubble telescope nearly as much as the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). That was a study of "acid rain by the Environmental Protection Agency. It took 10 years to complete and cost $500 million. NAPAP found that the average U.S. lake is no more acidic now than it was before the Industrial Revolution, and that there was no measurable increase in the acidity of lakes over the 10-year study. It concluded that the most effective way to counter acidity in lakes is by adding lime to the water, for a total cost of about $100,000 per year. That was the wrong answer. The study was supposed to be an excuse for regulation in the name of reducing pollution. So in 1990, Congress simply ignored the results, then went ahead and implemented massive new Clean Air Act regulations, at a cost of over six billion dollars per year - without fixing the problem! Once again, with WHI, we find science in the service of a similar ideological agenda. Breast cancer in women is about as common as prostate cancer in men, but already receives 660 times as much funding. The presumption that eating meat causes breast cancer, and that trace residues of chemical fertilizers, hormones and pesticides in produce do the same, is fervently touted by Greens and animal-rights activists. But, as was the case with NAPAP, the conventional wisdom may be wrong. Unfortunately, by 2007 (when WHI is projected to be completed), the President's health-care plan will be law, and costs will be through the roof. Taxpayers will be demanding action to control costs, just as they demanded pollution controls in 1990. Once again, we can expect science to get lost in the demagoguery of the special interests. If the Jeremy Rifkins of the world succeeded in forcing the "clean air" boondoggle down our throats despite NAPAP, what is to stop them from forcing their "Beyond Beef" and "Pure Foods" campaigns on US? The problem is strangely summed up in the tragic death of the actor River Phoenix. A child of hippies who met while hitch-hiking, Phoenix was named after the river of life in Herman Hesse's counterculture classic Siddhartha. Phoenix was a talented actor, starring in a dozen movies. He was also a prominent animal rights activist, anti-fur protester, and vegetarian. Yet Phoenix, who often denounced eating meat as unhealthy, died on Halloween at the age of 23, apparently from drugs. "It was the classic cocaine overreaction," said county fire captain Ray Ribar. "It just nails some people and stops the heart." Phoenix's brother, Leaf, who called 911 for assistance, told operators he thought River "had Valium or something." Reflecting on this tragedy, we can learn an important lesson: requiring prescriptions for Valium does not guarantee that it will not be abused, and banning cocaine does not keep it away from those who want it. It is a lesson we have learned before: far from eliminating the problems of alcohol abuse, Prohibition bred bootleggers and speakeasies. Likewise,no one really believes that the Brady Bill will disarm gang- bangers, or that banning modern agriculture will cure cancer. Life is filled with tragedy. we cannot protect the irresponsible from themselves by taking away the rights of those who are responsible. But some tragedies are of our own making. If we are to avoid self- destructive behavior, we must make people responsible for the consequences of their own actions. The President's national health care plan is a step in the wrong direction. By transferring more responsibility to government, it opens the floodgates for government to regulate every aspect of our lives.