Another step on the road to Socialized Medicine

Today the FDA took up consideration of mandating food processors to remove salt from their products. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for the limitation of salt in order to forcibly cause Americans to follow a low salt diet, thereby reducing their risk of high blood pressure and stroke. I have visited the IOM site and found some very problematic things.
First of all, this is the Institute of MEDICINE, but they have their fingers everywhere. They are doing projects on Education, Energy, Engineering, and many other non-medical fields. Here is a list of the projects starting with the letter “I”:

• Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors
• Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community
• Impact of Pregnancy Weight on Maternal and Child Health: A Workshop
• Improved Measurement of High School Dropout and Completion Rates: Expert Guidance on Next Steps for Research and Policy
• Improving Principles and Guidelines for Federal Water Resources Planning
• Improving Processes and Policies for the Acquisition and Test of Information Technologies in the Department of Defense
• Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Public Education
• Independent Evaluation of DC Public Schools
• Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress
• Indicators for Understanding Global Climate Change
• Industrial Methods for the Effective Test and Development of Defense Systems
• Information Assurance for Network-Centric Naval Forces
• Initial Assessment of Readjustment Needs of Military Personnel, Veterans, and their Families: Phase 1 and Phase 2
• Innovation Models for Aerospace Technologies
• Integrated Observations for Hydrologic and Related Sciences
• International Collaborations in Social and Behavioral Research: A Workshop
• International Outreach Activities on Biosecurity: A Workshop on Building Bridges between the Scientific and Policy Communities
• Internationalization of the Civilian Nuclear Fuel Cycle
• Investor Exit Strategies and Entrepreneurial Firm Growth: Phase One

So tell me, what do the items in bold have to do with MEDICINE???!! Nothing. This is a council appointed by the president to take care of his pet projects. Our fearless leaders pet project right now is to indoctrinate the USA as a socialist state and these folks are helping him to do it. I don’t know if any of these projects were ongoing under Bush, but I would love to know when they started. These projects have nothing to do with Medicine and should at the very least be moved into the appropriate department.

Secondly, not only are they recommending removing your salt, they also want to cut out your trans-fats and psychoanalyze your relationship with your children through their “Depression, Parenting Practices, and the Healthy Development of Children” project. The goal of this project is stated as:

“The committee will give particular attention to both opportunities for intervention as well as barriers to implementation, including public policy strategies, structure of clinical systems, and funding mechanisms that will maximize the likelihood of large-scale implementation of effective programs. The committee will also consider key issues that need to be resolved in incorporating interventions into health and social service environments that serve children and families.”

In other words, if they don’t like the values you are instilling in your child they will come in and take them from the home and put them into a state run environment or “appropriate” foster care. Some of these projects are very frightening. They are working towards taking away not only your food, but your rights. Don’t let them.