Hot Docs: Religious or Not, the Economy Is the Top Concern

Religious or Not, It's the Economy: Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, and even those not affiliated with a religion have found common ground—the economy. According to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life analysis of recent poll data, those groups all felt that strengthening the economy was a top priority, by a similarly overwhelming margin: 83 percent of evangelicals, 88 percent of mainline Protestants, 89 percent of Catholics, and 85 percent of people unaffiliated with a religion. However, when it comes to other issues of the day, that unanimity breaks down. Only 28 percent of evangelicals thought protecting the environment was a top priority, compared with 43 percent of the unaffiliated. However, while 59 percent of evangelicals thought dealing with moral breakdown was a top priority, that issue polled at 40 percent or less with all the other groups.

Opportunity for a New Look at the Mideast: New administrations in the United States and Israel have an opportunity to take a "fresh look at Middle Eastern diplomacy," particularly the situation with Syria. An analysis of the situation, "Damascus, Jerusalem, and Washington: The Syrian-Israeli Relationship as a U.S. Policy Issue," by the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy notes that the "priority the United States placed on the Israeli-Syrian relationship declined dramatically under the administration of George W. Bush, compared to its cardinal position during the period of the Clinton administration." While one of the top priorities of the Obama administration will be Iran, the analysis argues that Syria could be "a small, yet a significant piece in a larger national security puzzle."

Dietary Supplements Industry Needs More Oversight: The Food and Drug Administration needs more authority to oversee the multibillion-dollar dietary supplements industry, the Government Accountability Office has concluded. In a report, "Dietary Supplements: FDA Should Take Further Actions to Improve Oversight and Consumer Understanding," the GAO notes that the industry has grown exponentially. In 1994, there were about 4,000 dietary supplement products, and by 2008, there were 75,000. Sales of these products reached $23.7 billion in 2007, and over half of all U.S. adults use them. In one 10-month period last year, the industry filed 948 adverse-event reports, while the FDA estimated that incidents of health problems related to dietary supplements reached over 50,000 per year. The GAO recommends that the FDA seek additional authority to regulate the supplements and improve consumer education about them. 

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