Right now, they're opposing the Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act - a bill that will create an oversight panel to focus research funding on a streamlined agenda to create a breast cancer vaccine and to find a way to stop breast cancer metastasis.
Can't have something that would dilute Komen's role, now, can we?
This part is quite telling:
Upon calling my GOP senator and speaking with his aide, I was shocked to hear her tell me "Sen.__ can't sign on as a co-sponsor to the bill because all the breast cancer groups aren't in agreement on it." Shocked, I asked her who was opposing it. She told me that Komen opposed the bill. When I asked her why, she explained that Komen felt that treatment for uninsured breast cancer patients should be funded through private donations, like the pink ribbon race. I was speechless, in shock. A phone call to another activist confirmed it was true - Komen was lobbying behind the scenes to kill the bill. A moment later, Sen.__'s aide called me back and begged me not to repeat our conversation to anyone, that she had given me the information by mistake.
This is why "free market" solutions cannot be relied upon to solve major issues such as curing major diseases. Like a greedy capitalist, Komen is trying to monopolize funding for breast cancer research. And what is the one thing that would be the most detrimental to Komen? What is the one thing that would destroy their ability as a non-profit to secure financial power and influence?
That's right - a cure for breast cancer. Komen has a sweet little gig going shelling out for mammograms (which they can do in perpetuity without ever risking finding a cure) while the foundation funnels most of the donations they recieve into pay for their execs, branding, marketing, legal fees, and (wouldn't you know?) LOBBYISTS who are harassing Congress against their own "race for the cure".
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