WASHINGTON - An inquiry by a top House Democrat has found that enforcement of the nation's food and drug laws declined sharply during the first five years of the Bush administration.

For instance, the 15-month investigation found, the number of warning letters that the Food and Drug Administration issued to drug companies, medical device makers and others dropped 54 percent, to 535 in 2005 from 1,154 in 2000.

The seizure of mislabeled, defective or dangerous products dipped 44 percent, according to the inquiry, pursued by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

The research found no evidence that such declines could be attributed to increased compliance with regulations. Investigators at the FDA continued to uncover about the same number of problems at drug and device companies as before, Waxman's inquiry found, but top officials of the agency increasingly overruled the investigators' enforcement recommendations.

[link|http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4004563.html|source]

Boy, I'm sure glad that this administration is running the country as a business; I'd sure hate to live under a government that actually looks out for the health and well being of its citizens.