I notice the final FDA ruling came out during Bush’s lame duck period after Obama was elected - no doubt because the decision is wildly unpopular and totally unnecessary. It’s obviously a parting gift to drug companies that make prescription inhalers.

Obama could simply delay the rule’s implementation until there is a safe OTC inhaler available (they are undergoing FDA trials now), but expecting sensible decisions from the dopes who run our government is too much to ask. It’s poor people who rely on those cheap inhalers, and they will now have to get more expensive prescription inhalers, largely subsidized by taxpayers.

Politically, Obama would be smart to delay the rule’s implementation until after the election. When people start showing up in ER’s and dropping dead from asthma attacks in 2012 because they don’t have an emergency inhaler, Obama’s going to take the blame, right or wrong.