Republicans are against abortion. Why would nine Republicans vote against a bill in Congress (HR 7791, the Access to Baby Formula Act) that would help lower-income women secure baby formula for their babies?
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Republicans are against abortion. Why would nine Republicans vote against a bill in Congress (HR 7791, the Access to Baby Formula Act) that would help lower-income women secure baby formula for their babies?
Here is their statement
These Nine Republicans Voted Against Expanding Access to Baby Formula (newsweek.com)
The bill does nothing to address the shortage . It was designed as a stunt so the Dems can get on a soap box and claim Repubs don't want poor babies to get baby formula.
As a liberal dem just did on this site.
Clueless knew of the shortage and the issues involved mid year last year and did nothing about it until yesterday . Bills to streamline regulations to speed up domestic production and waive import restrictions will get an adequate supply of formula to ALL babies . WIC and other programs already provide formula when there is an adequate supply.
There is no adequate supply.
correct .....hence the bill passed is political posturing and not a real solution .In fact the WIC program contributes to the problem (more on this later )
This is a classic case of bureaucracy slow walking like a turtle and general incompetence . In 2 years between 2019 and 2021 the FDA received consumer complaints about children testing positive to cronobacter The company found contaminant in one of the batches just days after a 2019 inspection by the FDA.
September, in 2 separate inspections, the FDA discovered contaminants in the plant and violations . The first reported illness of a child was also in September .
October a whistleblower warned the FDA about safety issues at the plant including allegations that Abbott falsified records, released untested formula, employed lax cleaning practices, misled auditors, failed to take corrective measures and lacked good systems for tracing potentially contaminated products.
Still it took until February of this year for the FDA to start taking action.
Clueless took action this week invoking the Defensive Production Act which will allow more imported formula. However ,the supply chain has been an issue that is getting worse since covid ;and there have been many issues with contaminated imported formula .As you recall ,300,000 Chinese babies were poisoned by formula in 2008 . At very least imports should be subject to inspection by US inspectors BEFORE being shipped into the country .Instead his act will allow fast tracking of the product through customs .
The answer is to first get American production back up and running . The FDA has an agreement with Abbott to reopen the plant . But it is 2 weeks away.
The bigger problem is that consolidation reduced competition in the industry . There are only 3 producers in the country (Abbott, Gerber, and Mead Johnson). Millions of families use baby formula but few companies supply it . Abbott has a 40% market share .
1989 Congress passed laws requiring states to use competitive bidding to select one company to provide formula covered by the WIC program. This led to the bid winners getting a tremendous competitive advantage in the market. Thus the consolidation .The 3 companies mentioned are the ones that won the bids .Their control over the market has disincentivized the creation of new brands
Congress instead of posturing with silly laws that will not solve the issue should examine anti-trust laws and update them to apply to the 21st century market. It is an amazing thing . When there is a crisis the government solution inevitably is loosening regulatory red tape . One day they will realize that it is the red tape that often contributes to the crisis.
WIC baby formula rebate program ,which generates up to $2 billion a year from the manufacturers ,drive up the cost of the baby formula to all non-WIC customers. The government pockets the rebates instead of serving more WIC recipients
WIC serves almost half the infants that use baby formula . Do the Dems plan on having every person in America serviced by welfare ?
So much for the non-thinking argument that conservatives don't care about feeding born infants, an argument made by the crowd that sees no problem in killing 900 thousand innocent human beings a year for the crime of being inconvenient. And then, in the classic liberal dem strategy, they accuse others of being non-caring. Stunning.Quote:
WIC serves almost half the infants that use baby formula .
In 2018, 1.7 million infants (45 percent of all infants in the United States) were eligible for WIC. Ninety-eight percent of eligible infants participated in the program, meaning their WIC benefits were received or picked up. (People who are enrolled but whose benefits are not received or picked up are not counted as participants.)
WIC Eligibility and Coverage Rates - 2018 | Food and Nutrition Service (usda.gov)
You're barking up the wrong tree. WIC funds or not, there's not enough baby formula. What do you suggest feeding those millions of fetuses that get born?
Another typical lib strategy. Elect an incompetent boob who oversees the disappearance of much of the baby formula supply, and then ask someone else what they intend to do about it.
Classic.
my bark was responding to the OP . As for doing something about it ;I already gave a recommendation .
Congress instead of posturing with silly laws that will not solve the issue should examine anti-trust laws and update them to apply to the 21st century market. It is an amazing thing . When there is a crisis the government solution inevitably is loosening regulatory red tape . One day they will realize that it is the red tape that often contributes to the crisis.
That of course is a long term solution that the swamp critters will not adopt . Shorter term I guess Clueless is doing all he can do . He is begging other nations to solve it ;just like he is doing with oil .
The Dems in Congress are also doing what they do best ....throw money at a problem and do political posturing .
Nope. Breastfeeding has to become what new mothers do.
The stats don't lie . Baby formula is a $4.1 billion dollar industry in the US
and now a word from my favorite gum-show reporter in America .
Salena Zito: Rhetoric versus realism at the pump, and in the formula aisle | Pittsburgh Post-GazetteQuote:
Meanwhile, it was recently reported the Biden White House spent six months coming up with the nickname “Ultra MAGA” to go after Republican candidates.
The people who run strategy for the White House seem to have forgotten how to place themselves in voters’ shoes and experience everyday problems that impact families and communities. For them it is nothing but political calculation: They went to strategy school, not governing school.
Youngstown State University professor Paul Sracic says Biden has become a sort of anti-Harry Truman: “Where Truman insisted ‘The buck stops here,’ Biden is constantly trying to shift blame onto others; from Putin to ‘ultra-MAGA’ Republicans, Biden is hoping that Americans don’t hold him and his party responsible for things like inflation, the baby milk shortage, or the border crisis.”
Mr. Biden’s calculation, Mr. Sracic says, will not work.
Truman’s phrase was not an offer to take responsibility, but an acknowledgement of reality: When things go well in America, the president gets credit, and when they go wrong, he also gets credit.
“With parents scrambling to track down formula following the collision of supply chain issues and a massive recall, they want answers on how this could happen with such a life-critical product,” said Mr. Sracic.
How is it that we have these shortages, Mr. Pres? Why has gas gone up 150%? Why is inflation raging? How did you manage to so mismanage the Afghan withdrawal? Why can't you even begin to control the southern border?
Answer? "It was all those Ultra MAGA repubs!!"
Somehow I don't think that is going to fly in November.
These are world problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by jlisenbe
Inflation is not a worldwide problem. The Afghan withdrawal was strictly a Biden debacle. The shortages of baby food are not world problems. And gas has gone up due, in some measure, to the terrible energy policies of the Biden admin.
Please watch the news and read a newspaper or two.
We're not talking about baby food; the shortage is baby formula. My brother, sister, and I were raised on homemade formula. We three are still alive. And yes, factory-produced baby formula is in short supply throughout the world.
Thank you for that information rich reply.
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