Consumer Law

Not a Banner Week for Poor, Sick Children

By Joe Consumer

First of all, a child nutrition bill, which was a ?pet project of first lady Michelle Obama? has been punted to after the November midterm elections.  Politico reports, ?At the root of the impasse: a proposed $2.2 billion cut in future funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps for the poor. Despite personal appeals by the first lady, the Democrats balked at what they saw as a plan to pay for the nutrition bill by quietly cutting SNAP ? an essential food safety net that lawmakers had already borrowed from to pay for emergency aid to states.?

We also got to hear the big mea culpa from Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive William C. Weldon, who testified before a congressional committee about J&J's massive recalls of childrens? pain medicinces (pediatric Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec) because they possibly contained metal particles and/or ingredient problems. (Check out our earlier coverage here.)

Weldon said in his written statement: "Mr. Chairman, I know that we let the public down.  We did not maintain our high quality standards, and as a result, children do not have access to our important medicines.  I accept full accountability for the problems at McNeil, and I will take full accountability for fixing them."

In fact, all might have been lost had it not been for David Beckham?s bighearted announcement that  he won?t keep any of the money he wins in his libel suit against call girl Irma Nici and In Touch magazine (see earlier post here) and that ?[i]nstead, any money paid out in damages will be given directly to the couple's children's charity, the Victoria and David Beckham Charitable Trust.  A friend of the couple said: ?Any cash retrieved from this liar will help sick kids.??

There?s a lesson in there somewhere.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on October 01, 2010 (boomark / email).