In Mississippi yesterday, the Senate Public Health and Welfare committee killed HB722 without a recorded or public vote. The bill would have allowed terminally-ill patients to try investigational treatments without full FDA approval. The legislation is supported by the Goldwater Institute and has passed in at least 5 other states. The Mississippi House passed it last month, 120-0. Inside sources tell us that Republican leadership in the Senate didn’t want the bill to get to the Governor’s desk, so they quietly killed it in Committee before the Senate could even vote on it.

This shouldn’t be news: If you want more liberty, Republicans aren’t your friends. That counts for both federal and state politicians. At best, they’re chess pieces that you can work to push in a direction that they see as popular.

Michael Boldin