Government

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has issued a survey providing a detailed picture of the public's opinions about government.

By almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days. A new Pew Research Center survey finds a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government – a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials.

Rather than an activist government to deal with the nation’s top problems, the public now wants government reformed and growing numbers want its power curtailed. With the exception of greater regulation of major financial institutions, there is less of an appetite for government solutions to the nation’s problems – including more government control over the economy – than there was when Barack Obama first took office.

The public’s hostility toward government seems likely to be an important election issue favoring the Republicans this fall. However, the Democrats can take some solace in the fact that neither party can be confident that they have the advantage among such a disillusioned electorate. Favorable ratings for both major parties, as well as for Congress, have reached record lows while opposition to congressional incumbents, already approaching an all-time high, continues to climb.

The Tea Party movement, which has a small but fervent anti-government constituency, could be a wild card in this election. On one hand, its sympathizers are highly energized and inclined to vote Republican this fall. On the other, many Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the Tea Party represents their point of view better than does the GOP.

These are the principal findings from a series of surveys that provide a detailed picture of the public’s opinions about government. The main survey, conducted March 11-21 among 2,505 adults, was informed by surveys in 1997 and 1998 that explored many of the same questions and issues. While a majority also distrusted the federal government in those surveys, criticism of government had declined from earlier in the decade. And the public’s desire for government services and activism was holding steady.

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What is the Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Radiation Exposure from Medical Imaging, and why is FDA launching it?

What types of medical procedures are addressed by the Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Radiation Exposure from Medical Imaging? What is the timeframe for the actions FDA is taking as part of the Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Radiation Exposure from Medical Imaging? What is ionizing radiation? Do all medical imaging studies use ionizing radiation? How often are patients who undergo medical imaging exposed to unnecessary radiation? Are patients who undergo mammography at risk for unnecessary radiation exposure? What should providers and patients do to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure? Should members of the public be concerned about radiation exposure from body scanners at airports?

The Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee  held hearings, "Medical Radiation:  An Overview of the Issues",  and heard testimony from James and Donna Parks, Gulfport, Mississippi, among others:

"We are here [to] testify at this hearing to make public our son's terrible ordeal and death due to a radiation accident. When our son learned that the over-exposure to radiation was to take his life, he felt he had a mission to prevent this atrocity from happening to others. He asked that all of us work to make his suffering and death have some meaning. He confided to us that he was worried about his wife, and must stay alive until he knows she will be OK. After more than two years of hideous agony he let himself die hoping that his ordeal might save many others from the same terrible suffering. Scott's primary care giver, his wife Carmen, suffered through every moment of every day for over two years as she helplessly saw her husband go blind, and deaf, and lose his teeth with his face contorted with gangrene tissue over his ear and scalp. He suffered constant, acute pain and vomiting every day with constant hiccupping that he had to cope with as best he could. Perhaps unfortunately, his brain was least affected during all but the last stages, and he was aware of all that was happening to his body. The last time we saw Scott, at our Christmas family gathering for him, he was a caricature of what our son used to be. He became a helpless invalid at the end. He did whisper to me that 'Carmen will be OK. I'm ready to go.'  What we can give you are only snapshots in time since we could visit Scott only every 3 or 4 months.  The person who knows every detail of the tragedy is Carmen but she must remain silent because of a gag order tied to the financial settlement. It is the hospital's way of making serious accidents a guarded secret. Our son's widow should be here testifying to this panel, but she must remain silent."

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Posted by Heidi Beirich, Southern Law Poverty Center

"This morning’s attack by Joseph Andrew Stack against an IRS office building in Austin, Tex., is a reminder again of how extreme hatred of government can morph into violence. Since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has documented 75 domestic terrorist plots, most of which involved individuals with extreme antigovernment views. One of the plots, if carried out, would have resulted in the deaths of some 30,000 people."

"Stack’s actions come as the number of antigovernment 'Patriot'and militia groups is rising fast, as revealed by the SPLC this past summer. In the 1990s, the combustible mix of rising antigovernment anger and the growth in militias was a recipe for disaster that ultimately resulted in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh, who was motivated by antigovernment hatred."

" 'This attack comes amid the absolutely explosive growth of the right-wing militias and the larger antigovernment ‘Patriot’ movement, which includes thousands of so-called tax protesters who believe the federal income tax is illegal' said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. 'There is a populist rage out there about what is seen as the coddling of rapacious elites, like the mortgage bankers who kept receiving multimillion dollar bonuses, even as working Americans seem to keep losing more and more.' "

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Lawmaker Loopholes? A FactCheck.org Q&A regarding, as they termed it, the latest e-mail rant against Congress, tackles some of these 'false and outdated' claims:

Q: Is Congress exempt from "many" laws including one against sexual harassment?

A: No. The latest e-mail rant against Congress — proposing a "28th Amendment" to the Constitution — is full of false and outdated claims.

FULL QUESTION

A chain e-mail (see below) claims members of Congress can retire after one term with their same pay and, while serving, pay no Social Security and exempt themselves from some laws, e.g., sexual harassment and health care legislation. A 28th Amendment to the Constitution is proposed barring Congress from enacting laws applying to its members and not equally to the "citizens of the United States."

Are the facts right?

Subject: An idea whose time has come

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that Congressmembers could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn’t pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered …in all of its’ forms.

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