ABLEnews Mail Bag

eZine lover (@eZine)

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ABLEnews

· 1 year ago

(128) Mon 19 Jul 93 11:08p
By: Earl Appleby
To: ALL
Re: ABLEnews Mail Bag

ABLEnews Mail Bag

ABLEnews crossposts the Special Editions of Of Notes to sister echoes in Fidonet and other networks. We thought you might be interested in the thoughts readers have taken the time to share in response. The following three messages were originally posted in Grand Rounds:

1. Congressional Hypocrisy

BBS: Project Enable
Date: 07-14-93 (20:55)
From: KURT ULLMAN
To: EARL APPLEBY
Subj: OF NOTE SPECIAL

"Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code... allows pharmaceutical companies, probably the greediest and most self-righteous of America's industries, to avoid paying about $3 billion in taxes. It has proven such a boon to pharmaceuticals that according to Sen. (David) Pryor (D-AR), half of all prescription medicine consumed in the U.S. is now manufactured in Puerto Rico."
(Corporate Types Robbing America Blind)

This is THE most hypocritical part of the discussion on health care. The drug companies are using a perfectly legal tactic that was passed BY CONGRESS a few years ago to help stimulate the economy of Puerto Rico. For a Senator or Congressman to now come down on them for this is self-righteous and disingenuous at best. BTW: This tax advantage is not only used by Drug Companies. I know from personal experience that many other types of manufacturers use this tax break. Many chemical manufacturers are also in PR for the same tax advantages.

2. Government, Parents, Children, and Vaccinations

BBS: Project Enable
Date: 07-14-93 (20:55)
From: KURT ULLMAN
To: EARL APPLEBY
Subj: OF NOTE SPECIAL

Dr. Vincent Fulginitti, chairman of a federal advisory panel recommending a national immunization tracking system, says it should be as easy to access a child's immunization records as his birth certificate. The plan begs the question of who will pay for the vaccines needed to immunize children.
(Federal Panel Endorses National Vaccine Plan, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

When the Great Clinton Free Vaccination Plan of 1993 was introduced, even the Congressional Budget Office noted that nearly $1 out of every $4 already budgetted was not being spent because parents were not immunizing their children until required for school. This plan, thus, also begs the question of how will you get more parents to immunize their rugrats at an early age. This plan also very studiously ignores the even greater questions of privacy.

"Parents' rights groups are very alarmed about some of the vaccination bills that are currently moving through Congress, which contain funds for some kind of federal or state registry. Can anyone doubt that there is something to be alarmed about?... Last Feb. 15, the Wall Street Journal reported on a case in which a family court judge found a father neglectful because he declined, for religious reasons, to allow his daughter to be vaccinated against measles. The judge reached this conclusion even though she specifically found that the father was a good and diligent father in all other regards. As it happened, the judge decided not to remove the child from her father's custody, thus sparing both father and daughter severe trauma. The next parent and child may not be so lucky."
(More Than the Shots to Call, Gary Bauer, op ed, Washington Times, 5/25/93)

I rest my case(G)