For those of you who have read the following story in a previous blog, bear with me.  Years ago, I went on a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with some other physicians at the Heritage Foundation.  Prior to departure, I discovered that I had enough miles on a credit care to upgrade to first class…whoo hoo!  I wound up sitting next to a professional woman, immaculately dressed.  I asked her what she did.  She said she ran a consulting firm that helped companies address the regulatory burden represented by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  “How did you get in to that business,” I asked?  “I was director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission,” she said.  Being in first class, I tried to laugh in a classy way, but didn’t pull it off.  She didn’t appreciate my sense of humor, needless to say. 

What a game.  Create the insanity and the crisis, then profit from it.  What a business plan.  I sometimes call this a “manufactured demand.”  Quasi-private companies like this that suck taxpayer blood, just one step removed are also sometimes referred to as “cottage industries.”  They typically work very closely with government agencies to insure that the issuance of new and complex regulations and rules(the interpretation of which would of course be impossible without their expertise…cough…), continues unabated.  This disgusting and fascist arrangment, what many call a “public private partnership” is unethical, immoral and should be illegal, as the property rights violations by these symbiotic parasites are just as real as a big city mugging.  There is not adequate blog space on the internet to list all of these back room relationships.

Whenever someone in the private sector lobbies for more funding for a government agency, that’s a clue that something is up.  Here’s an example:  APIC. Association for Professionals in Infection Control.  Without the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), this outfit has no purpose.  Without APIC, the CDC has no private sector sycophant and cheerleader.  APIC also represents a significant sinecure for former CDC employees.  A recent email alert from APIC has stressed the importance of calling your legislator to increase the CDC’s funding for their NHSN (National Healthcare Safety Network).  They might as well say,”MORE MONEY FOR THE MOTHER SHIP!”  This, of course, increases the supply of blood for APIC to suck out, not unlike a tick demanding the vet transfuse the dog.  Pretty callous to the U.S. government’s looming bankruptcy. Wonder what Paul Ryan’s crew would think of this?  Notice what the beginning of the NHSN website page says: