https://capitolism.thedispatch.com/p/americas-infant-formula-crisis-and How the formula shortage got so bad, and how we’re basically starving babies this month to feed (American) Big Dairy, and the FDA is helping do that.
Interesting article, especially the look at how nationalist economic policies can really backfire and expose you. Supplier diversity is always important Also found it interesting that there's 1.5 million infants in the US are on a voucher program to buy baby formula.....that seems like a lot
Yeah but what's it actually do? Anything at all to actually help the supply problem? Or is it just going to allow residents in states with supply problems to bid up the cost of formula in neighboring states? Or will the Fedgov bid up the cost in those states itself and ship it to the short states itself? Neither are actually good except in the very, very short term, and will make things worse not only in the medium term, but even the short term.
You really think that it matters to the GQP? Seriously, you're going to look at a party that is hell-bent on bringing authoritarianism to this country and suggest that if the bill was written in a different way they might vote for it? It's lost in the shuffle, but this Congress has no problem getting meaningless bullshit passed. They do it all the time, with resolutions to support this or that thing that nobody really cares about, but makes good campaign fodder back home. But somehow, when there's a fraction of the money that we're sending to Ukraine involved, they're suddenly worried about if the bill's meaningful. GTFO with that bullshit. They could hold any number of votes to destroy Obamacare, but never once came up with an alternative to it, despite all their promises to do so. The bill might very well be bullshit, I don't know (and it's not like it's going to go anywhere in the Senate), but even if it wasn't the GQP would vote against it. Because that's what they do.
So the congressional bill will help short term price gouging until Biden's policies get supply back in fold.
It may require voting for them to stop the leaping authoritarianism, but Democrats don't get a pass on (speculative) criticism for (potentially) bad governance just because the Republicans are worse.
How, exactly? What does the bill actually do? Re: the video: Oof. Hopefully the DPA works (and isn't blocked by litigation), because Operation Fly Formula is going to be marginal at best. Almost no one makes formula that meets this country's overly-restrictive standards, that's the whole problem. There's one company in Ireland or something that even bothers trying. The USMCA caps imports from Canada. The solution is accepting different standards even if they're not 100% of what the FDA requires in every nutrient category.
Here's why: How the GQP was able to keep their base energized to the point where they could make a violent attempt at overthrowing the fucking government is by pumping out all kinds of shitty bills and actions that they knew wouldn't go anywhere, but they did them because it kept the base happy. You want folks, like certain posters here who throw temper tantrums because they can't have their perfect candidate on the ballot to stay home and not vote against the GQP? Then just keep advocating what you're advocating. The GQP aren't rational actors, stop expecting them to act like it. Yeah, sure, an ideal bill is better, but such a thing takes time to craft, and there's umpteen folks who're pissed as hell because Trump's not already in a prison cell. You don't want to give them further excuses by taking the time to craft an ideal bill, especially when it's almost 100% certain that Republicans will still oppose it! Seriously, WTF does it matter if it's a good bill or not, if it's automatically going to be DOA when it hits the Senate because Schumer can't get the 60 votes needed to block a filabuster?
My understanding is that the issue with most of the formula produced in Europe is that the labeling doesn't meet US standards, even though the formula itself does. Honestly, if an item meets HAACP certifications, then we really ought to allow it to be imported into the US. @Ten Lubak has more experience with those rules than I do (I only worked for a company that had to follow them for 5 years), but a whole shitload of food out there has to meet them, even if they can't export the food to the US.
This. I have no doubt Canada's manufacture of baby formula is safe for consumption. That goes for most other nations, whom I have no doubt would rather not poison their own infant population. The goal should be to get as much formula to all corners as quickly and efficiently as possible, regardless of cost. If we can send billions to other countries for aid, we can hustle to get desperately needed formula to these babies.
I agree. Democrats may well now have more humanitarian problems, but they accept bribes just like the rest of Congress. If anything, they should be held to a higher standard - that is, if they truly want to be known as "good" custodians of our laws.
I'm almost certain Europe and Canada has stricter standards than the US. The problem is that when Abbott and AbbVie split, the most scrupulous executives went to AbbVie along with all the desire to make better medicines leaving Abbott with the people who strive for profit over people. This was apparent within a month after the split.
Let's all be clear here: The supposed "greatest country in the world", the beacon of freedom and democracy, can't even adequately feed its babies. And the leader of the country has to invoke emergency military measures to hopefully fix the problem. What. The. Fuck.
Don't forget that in the midst of this crisis, COVID is still running rampant, people are still going hungry, grocery prices are skyrocketing, they're paying twice as much for fuel, they're not able to make their rent, and yet the US is currently both sending another $40 billion in military aid, plus $215 million in food aid to Ukraine, and gearing up to invade Somalia.
given that we've got an estimated 1.3M kids living in impoverished circumstances here.. well, first off gonna presume we have a lower bar to admitting we're letting people go without basic necessities, but also that if things were being reported with the same criteria, their numbers would be disturbingly higher. Like, how many households may clear the income to not be considered impoverished, but that's because someone is working 60-80 hours of their week?
Asking if the Democrats were right to vote yes on a bill is not the same as asking if the Republicans were wrong. GQP = reliably wrong does not mean DNC = reliably right. “My enemies are Nazis, so you must approve of all my legislation” is some Putin shit, even when your enemies are actually Nazis.
We did let Trump renegotiate NAFTA for a new bill. And we stopped breaking up megamergers decades ago. It's inevitable when you let the stupid win.
I hate to defend her, but WIC *is* largely responsible. The last 15 seconds of the video are nonsense, I assume, but the first 40-ish aren't. WIC do have huge buying power, and within each state they write single-source contracts for formula. See the link in the OP for more details. Their design is definitely responsible for why there's no resiliency in the supply chain to make up for the loss of this one plant.
That sounds suspiciously like a powerful group blaming a group with no voice to retaliate. I call bullshit.
"There would be more formula for the kids of middle- and upper-class parents ... if only the poors weren't able to afford it!"
It's entirely legitimate to blame a badly-designed program for bad outcomes regardless of the intent behind it, or who benefits from it. WIC didn't have to write single-source contracts. That's entirely on the feds, not on the recipients.
Except she's not talking about single-source contracts. She's complaining about the poors being able to get too much food for their kids.
Let me put it to you another way: A serial killer has broken into the house we both share, I say I'm going to grab my sawed-off shotgun, and you're worried about it being cut off below the legal limit. (Amazing, I didn't have to invoke Godwin to make my point.) Read the fucking draft opinion on abortion. Notice that Alito points out that abortion isn't a right because it's not mentioned in the Constitution, and also notice he says the same thing about privacy. Given the bizarre twists of logic he's used to wipe Roe off the books (with birth control next, I'm sure) there's no telling what kind of shit he'll pull to gut the rest of our rights, even if they're enumerated in the Constitution (and yes, they'll go after all of them) this isn't the time to worry if we're following the Marquess of Queensberry Rules to the letter. They've already gutted the SEC's ability to enforce oversight, and I can assure you that corporate lawyers are now spinning up lawsuits to go after every government agency that enforces regulations. Say goodbye to the EPA, FDA, USDA, FAA, and a shitload of other agencies doing anything to keep us safe. For the sake of argument, let's say that the composition of Congress doesn't shift after the mid-terms. Sure, one party might lose a seat here or there, but they pick up the same number of seats elsewhere. WTF does that do to stop SCOTUS from issuing a bugfuck ruling? Nothing, unless a bunch of conservative justices keel over and Biden can replace them. And now, think about what might happen at the state level. There's already a number of Republicans running for office on a platform where they're promising to enact policies that will make it very hard for Biden to be re-elected. Someone added up the votes Trump got in states where he won the electoral college vote and then subtracted from them the votes Biden got in the states where he won the electoral college vote. The total number of votes that actually decided who became President was less than 100K. That's a goddamned nailbiter in my book, YMMV. If, OTOH, we can expand Democratic control of Congress by a bit, and keep the craziest of the crazy Republicans from winning at the state and local level, we have a chance to prevent this country from slipping into authoritarianism and perhaps expanding on Democratic margins in 2024 so we can implement meaningful changes in how government works to prevent someone who's just as authoritarian, but a smidge smarter than Trump, from tipping this nation into authoritarianism. You're invoking Nazism over an item that costs less than what the American Rescue Plan gave to one county in PA. Do you feel stupid yet? Because you should.
No, I'm worried that you're going to shoot the load-bearing pillar regardless of whether you hit the serial killer, and you're going off about your 2nd amendment rights.
