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1.: STEM CELLS MAY CURE THE ECONOMY: One Last E-Blast From: Stephen Meyer

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

Posted by: "Stephen Meyer" Stephen276@comcast.net stephen_meyer_stemcells

Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:57 am (PDT)

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
<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 4th, 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.

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