The Republican answer is unclear. It might be "NO" or it might be something like urging each consumer to buy their own home laboratories so that they can check for bacteria and melamine and other fun fillers. Or it might be that many of them believe the holy marketplace would never (nevah!) allow bad products to thrive.
That they do thrive for quite a while, as shown by various past crises, is not a bug but a feature, I guess. We need a few deaths before it's worthwhile to do something about the markets. Otherwise the God of Greed might drop rocks on us. If it kills you slowly enough that you remain a functional consumer for a while and if nobody knows about it, the markets are fine with it.
This story is what made me go on one of my rants:
Whatever the reason, the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee has approved a spending bill that not only slashes the budget of the Consumer Product Safety Commission but also cuts off all funding for a recently launched database of product-safety complaints.As usual, this is about following the money trail, sigh.
The online database is one of the most important consumer tools to emerge from Washington in years. It enables people to report potentially faulty or harmful products, as well as to research goods before making a purchase.