Jim Hightower

Mitt Romney is right: Barack Obama and his Oval Office cell of insidious socialists are strangling American corporations with the red tape of federal regulations.

For example, look at what the Food and Drug Administration did to poor little Pfizer, the drug maker that markets an Alzheimer's medicine called Aricept. This pill delivers $2 billion-a-year in sales, but, alas, its monopoly patent was set to expire in 2010, opening the door for cheaper generic versions. So, with a wink and a grin, Aricept's maker asked FDA regulators to extend its monopoly. Why? Because it had come up with a new version. Actually, the new was the same as the old, except more than twice the dosage.

But FDA's dastardly medical researchers said no. Why? Their pathetic excuse was that the goosed-up potency produced practically no benefits to Alzheimer's sufferers, while causing severe side effects that could kill elderly patients. See, it's this kind of socialistic picky-pickiness that proves how unfriendly the Obamacans are to corporate interests. After all, what are a few dead old people compared to monopoly profits in corporate coffers?

But wait – amazingly, justice prevailed! Dr. Russell Katz, a top FDA official, suddenly, stepped in and overruled the agency's scientists. While Katz did admit that the more potent Aricept pill could cause "increased mortality," he asserted that it most likely would improve the overall functionality of patients who survived. Never mind that actual clinical tests of the juiced-up drug showed no such improvement, the important thing is that some Obama regulators seem at last to be heeding Mitt Romney's message that we must coddle corporations, not challenge them.

Obama – as well as you and me – have to decide which side we're on: people… or profits? Mitt says the choice is simple.