Specter: Conservatives killed Jack Kemp
“Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn’t want me as their candidate,” Mr. Specter said on “Face the Nation.” “But as a matter of principle, I’m becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats’ approach. And one of the items that I’m working on, Bob, is funding for medical research.”
Mr. Specter continued: “If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”
Because, you know, the biotech industry can’t do anything right in private hands. Cancer research can only be effective when managed by a federal bureaucracy.
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May 4th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Great. Specter throws out a comment without support, and you then make a catty reply similarly without support. How about some numbers to support your argument?
May 4th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I guess they dusted off John Edwards playbook and handed it to Specter.
May 4th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Quiz time! Which of the following cancer drugs were discovered by the pharmaceutical industry? (hint: the answer might be zero!)
nitrogen mustard (perhaps the first cancer chemotherapy)
antifolates (e.g. methotrexate)
taxol
camptothecins
cisplatin
nitrosoureas (e.g. fludarabine)
The witless wonders of the far-right don’t realize that the major advances in cancer chemotherapy have overwhelmingly come from the great USA, and from the great USA government.
The pharmaceutical industry has played merely a supporting role.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
CNN: ‘I’m very serious about running,’ Ron Paul’s son says
“I am very serious about running for Sen. Bunning’s seat if he decides not to run,” 46-year-old Rand Paul told CNN.
“Until he makes a final pronouncement, I’m trying not to do anything formally but I’m very close to making a decision.”
May 4th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Pluto- If a Pharmaceutical industry doesn’t make a at least 1 billion dollars for every drug it releases, it’s loosing money. That’s why drugs costs so much.
Step I trials: cost approximately 10 million
Step II trials: cost approximately 100 million
Important fact: only 1 out of every 10 drugs makes it out of step I and step II.
This means that on average getting a drug on the market means a 1 billion dollar government compliance cost (for safety reasons)
The U.S. consumer is the one paying ultra high costs for their drugs so they can pay for it.
I’m not offering a critique just telling you the economics of it all.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Specter has been plucked from the jaws of C twice.
When he and his commie buddies put in place rationed health care, these same treatments will not be afforded to the rest of us serfs, slaves, subjects……..
How dare he even speak on this matter.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Dean and Carville threaten Specter: shape up or face primary challenge.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Redstate jumps into the Rand Paul debate.
I read the whole thing…I can’t say it was entirely unfavorable.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Pluto makes a point:
“The witless wonders of the far-right don’t realize that the major advances in cancer chemotherapy have overwhelmingly come from the great USA, and from the great USA government. The pharmaceutical industry has played merely a supporting role.”
Please tell me Pluto….which great government agency made these drugs? Which one’s conducted the research? Which agency is liable if one of these drugs are found to be defective?
In my 30 years or so of working with the government….I only know of managers….not actual intelligent scientist capable of providing a product. So if you are saying that the government funded research into this area and managed the result, therefore they are the responsible party….I would say you are absolutely an idiot to the nth degree. That’s like saying the government engineers designed the F-22 since they wrote the specs…..
May 4th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Fred,
I don’t understand your complaint. Are you suggesting that pharmaceutical company and biotech company research hasn’t saved lives?
Or are you suggesting that government knows how to allocate funding to research better than private capital?
If I had a terminal condition and had $100 million to find a cure, I’d trust entrepreneurial, privately funded researchers before I’d trust government bureaucrats.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Pluto-
How many hundreds of cancer treating drugs have been discovered? Sure, the Nat’l Cancer Institue has found a few, but are you suggesting the Pharm and biotech cos would have been unable to ever found them themselves? Are you suggesting that the GOVERNMENT funded ones are going to do so more effeciently, provide more bang for the buck?
May 4th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
If you click on articles in this link, Pluto might learn something:
http://www.phrma.org/
May 4th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Just from the first article so he can’t miss it:
“Record investment in R&D is leading America’s biopharmaceutical companies toward record levels of clinical testing of new medicines. Today, there are more than 2,900 medicines in development in the U.S., including 750 compounds in development for cancer, 312 for heart disease and stroke, 150 for diabetes, 109 for HIV/AIDS and 91 for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.”
May 4th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I actually tend to agree with Pluto that almost all of the true R&D comes from the Universities. This is kind of like saying the mechanical engineers and electrical engineers aren’t the ones making the mind blowing break throughs. Engineering is applied science whereas the physicists etc, etc are the people grinding away at the conceptual framework for the engineers to use\apply.
The reason we have high drug prices are patent laws and the associated costs of Step I and II clinical trials and the high failure rate of drugs going through the process.
They spend 100 billion on a drug to go through the Government’s FDA testing, and 90% of their drugs fail this process. If they get one through, the company is rewarded with a 20 year patent\monopoly on selling that drug so they have to milk the drugs for all they’re worth to so as to keep new drugs in the pipeline.
I think some of the drug companies tend to manipulate the chemical structures of the drug in order to come up with similar drugs. Saying that the big Pharma companies do nothing is kind of a stretch, but there is some truth to it.
May 5th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Rand Paul is for the people, unless you want your children to
have human implant RFID chips, a National ID card and create
a North American Union and see an economic collapse far worse
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your voice heard! He will end the War In Iraq immediately,
He will eliminate the IRS and wasteful government spending, and
eliminate the Federal Reserve and restore power to the people
and the only person running who won’t be a member of the CFR. Can any other runner
make these claims or give Americans the true freedom we were all
raised to believe? We are all economic slaves to the banks and the
illegal federal Reserve. This is why our currency is worth nothing
because of Hidden Inflation Tax and the IRS taking everything
you make!
** RAND PAUL WILL STOP THE IRAQ WAR IMMEDIATELY! **
Rand Paul will NEVER vote:
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* for an unbalanced budget
* to raise congressional pay
* for a federal restriction on gun ownership
* to increase the power of the executive branch
He WILL vote:
* against the Iraq war
* against the inappropriately named USA PATRIOT act
* against regulating the internet
* against the Military Commissions Act
He will eliminate the IRS, Wasteful Government Spending &
Stop The Iraq War Immediately!
Most importantly, he will vote NO on anything in Congress that
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May 5th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Taxol is a great example. Your tax dollars at work, now that is a nuclear bang for the buck.
There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding by many of you that government-funded cancer research is conducted by “bureaucrats”.
To be sure, many great cancer therapy advances have been by private industry. However, the history of cancer research as a whole is a testament to the greatness of medical research in the USA. Government-funded medical research.
Ralph E. links to a Pharma website. That is fine, but step back and look at the big picture and history. Government-funded research is the grease on the sled runners.
May 5th, 2009 at 5:47 am
Moreover, where do you think that Pharma scientists are trained to do research? Academic labs funded by NIH dollars. Take away NIH and how do you propose that Pharma will attract the very top scientists? They will all come from China, India, Europe and Japan (not that they don’t already…). The USA remains the leader in biomedical research…because of federal dollars.
May 5th, 2009 at 6:00 am
heh, Pluto see my previous post. I agree with you on most points.
May 5th, 2009 at 7:02 am
Do you trust the government’s intentions, are the 401K\IRA plans safe?
May 5th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Jeff Cherry, Ron Paul’s 2010 challenger, is seriously disturbed by tea party goers.
May 5th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Charles Rangel plans to bring back his bill to reinstate the draft.
I say,”Bring It On”. Sure all the effeminate metro type obamamaniacs will support that!
May 5th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Roubini says don’t believe stress tests or stock market rally.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Lindsey Graham says that he is working to rebuild the party for 2010. Lindsey Graham declares that Ron Paul is not the leader of the Republican Party.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Montana Govenor signs new gun law.
Sounds good. I don’t think the Federal Government should regulate anything of this type.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Glen Beck had an interesting person on his show recently.
Gabriel Calzada is the founder of Instituto Juan de Mariana, which is the CATO\Mises Institute of Spain.
May 5th, 2009 at 10:00 am
What is the appeal of Arlen Specter? Why does he think this country needs his services?
May 9th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
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