STEM CELLS MAY CURE THE ECONOMY: One Last E-Blast 

 

by Don C. Reed

 

If I could reach every stem-cell-supportive candidate right now, I would say:

 

Dear Candidate:

 

In these few remaining hours before election, consider a last-minute e-blast about your stem cell research support. Here's why:

 

It is a terrific way to reach independent voters Voters who self-identify as independents are the strongest supporters of stem cell research, stronger even than Democrats.

 

"Support (for embryonic stem cell research) is higher among Democrats (64 percent) than among Republicans (46 percent), and is highest among the politically important independents (67 percent).*--Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Results for America.

 

Reminding voters of your stem cell support cannot hurt you-- and it might help a lot.

 

In virtually every demographic, a majority of voters supports full stem cell research.   Recent polling, for example shows American Catholics support embryonic stem cell research three-to-one.  One national survey sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter shows "77% of American Catholics support stem cell research on excess embryos." Another 2008 poll, by Belden Russonello & Stewart, found: "By a wide margin, they (Catholic voters)  … favor stem cell research with early human embryos (69% support)" --http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/documents/executivesummary.pdf.,

 

Who opposes stem cell research? An increasingly isolated minority of die-hard ideological ultra-conservatives—who will never vote for a progressive anyway… 

 

And if I could ask every candidate to send out ONE LAST E-BLAST, it would focus on one tremendous boost to the economy:

 

Dear Fellow Citizen:

 

We all agree: the economic meltdown is the number one concern of every American.

 

But my opponent fails to realize that healthcare costs are at the roots of the current crisis.

 

Listen to the American Association of Retired Persons, "Health care expenses can be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, causes of bankruptcy among older Americans."

 

You know the cost of your healthcare is skyrocketing. But take a look at the total costs…

 

***"The medical care costs of people with chronic diseases account for more than 75% of the nation's $2 trillion medical care costs". –Department of Health and Human Services, http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/overview.htm 

 

Two trillion dollars? That mountain of debt may well be the root cause of the recession.

 

Consider: Health care costs are now more than all federal income taxes combined.

(To verify that, visit the Internal Revenue Service website, Tax Stats at a Glance: (http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=102886,00.html):

 

Individual income tax: $1.3 trillion ($1,366,241,000,000)

Corporation income tax: $400 billion ($395,536,000,000)

Add it up, round it off: $1.7 trillion.

 

All the federal income taxes in America combined, ($1.7 trillion dollars) are not as much as our health care costs ($2 trillion)—and why are our medical costs so high?

 

Because people are getting sick, but not getting well: an estimated 100 million Americans suffer a chronic (incurable) illness or disability: that is one out of three citizens!  We are keeping people alive, maintaining them in their misery, but not curing them.

 

Too many of our loved ones suffer disease and disability for which there is no cure—except, perhaps, through stem cell research.

 

How do we lower these impossible medical costs? The answer is huge, and plain.

 

Cure is the best way to lower health care costs.  Remember an earlier great success America had, when our own Jonas Salk invented a way to prevent the crippling disease of polio. If the Salk vaccine had not been developed, today we would be spending an estimated $28 billion each and every year for that one disease.

 

We do not have that cost today, because we backed medical research: overcoming the objections of the same ultra-conservatives (like my opponent) who are against it today.

 

Stem cells and other biomedical advances are a pillar of the new economy: a great way to help cure the financial crisis.

 

One final example: medical care for a paralyzed person may cost three to five million dollars over a lifetime.  But what is there was a cure? Embryonic stem cell therapies to alleviate paralysis are being considered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) right now. Patients with a spinal cord injury may soon have the chance to walk out of the hospital, instead of being condemned to a lifetime in a wheelchair.

 

We must consider our families: shall we develop a new industry bringing good-paying jobs to the community, while working to heal our suffering loved ones? Or not?

 

On November 4^th, our country will decide: choosing between leaders who can grasp the shining promise of the future, or those who are inextricably tied to the failures of the past.

 

That decision is in your hands.