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Democrats Demand Investigation Into Republican Budget Cuts To Ebola Preparedness
Yes! Throw it back in their hypocritical mugs! 
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/16/pelosi-demands-hearing-funding-levels-public-health-institutes-light-ebola-threat.html
Democrats Demand Investigation Into Republican Budget Cuts To Ebola Preparedness
By: Jason Easley and Sarah Jones
Thursday, October, 16th, 2014, 5:02 pm
Democrats are asking the right questions and demanding that Republicans hold hearings and investigate whether the CDC and NIH had appropriate funding levels in the areas necessary to combat Ebola.
In a statement, a group of House Democrats said,
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and the other Democratic Members of the Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education Appropriations Subcommittee in calling for hearings on the funding levels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and related agencies in light of the ongoing public health threat posed by the Ebola virus:
As Francis Collins, head of the NIH, said last week: ‘NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It’s not like we suddenly woke up and thought, “Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here.” Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.’
….
The Appropriations Committee should return to Washington immediately and convene hearings to discuss and debate the issue of funding levels for NIH, CDC and related agencies in light of the public health challenges posed by the Ebola virus. While it is important that the House Homeland Security and Energy & Commerce committees have held hearings, it is not right that the Appropriations committee has not met in accordance with its responsibilities to fund these critical public health agencies.
As Francis Collins, head of the NIH, said last week: ‘NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It’s not like we suddenly woke up and thought, “Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here.” Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.’
….
The Appropriations Committee should return to Washington immediately and convene hearings to discuss and debate the issue of funding levels for NIH, CDC and related agencies in light of the public health challenges posed by the Ebola virus. While it is important that the House Homeland Security and Energy & Commerce committees have held hearings, it is not right that the Appropriations committee has not met in accordance with its responsibilities to fund these critical public health agencies.
While Republicans are busy doing their usual blame Obama thing and the media is whipping up needless hysteria over whether or not Ebola will be invading our homes and killing us all, Democrats are asking the important question. How did we get here?
snip//
It isn’t a black and white situation, but the sequester that Republicans love so much has hurt. The focus should be on congressional Republicans, for one simple reason. The president doesn’t make the budget. Obama can make budgetary recommendations, but at the end of the day, as the old saying goes, the House controls the purse strings.
The talk about Obama’s budget is a smokescreen coming from people who don’t want to discuss the real issue. The important question isn’t did the CDC have enough funding. What needs to be investigated is if the CDC was properly funded in the area of preparedness.
House Republicans love to “investigate” any Obama scandal that Fox News can dream up, but it is a safe bet that they won’t investigate the role that their own budgetary choices played in the current situation.
55 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Citing security threat, Obama expands U.S. role fighting Ebola
By Jeff Mason and James Harding Giahyue - Sep 16, 2014
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, September 16, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
ATLANTA/MONROVIA (Reuters) -
...Obama's plan calls for sending 3,000 troops, including engineers and medical personnel; establishing a regional command and control center in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, commanded by Major General Darryl Williams, who arrived there on Tuesday; and forming a staging area in Senegal to help distribute personnel and aid on the ground. It also calls for building 17 treatment centers with 100 beds each; placing U.S. Public Health Service personnel in new field hospitals in Liberia; training thousands of healthcare workers for six months or longer; and creating an "air bridge" to get health workers and medical supplies into West Africa more quickly. The worst Ebola outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976 has already killed nearly 2,500 people and is threatening to spread elsewhere in Africa. Obama said "the world is looking to us" to take the lead against Ebola, but urged other nations also to take action because the epidemic is "spiraling out of control" and "people are literally dying in the streets..."
Obama said that if the outbreak is not stopped now, hundreds of thousands of people may become infected, "with profound political and economic and security implications for all of us."
"This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security. It’s a potential threat to global security, if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic. That has profound effects on all of us, even if we are not directly contracting the disease," Obama added...
Liberians hailed the word that U.S. troops were coming, recalling a military operation in 2003 that helped stabilize the country during a civil war. "This is welcome news. This is what we expected from the U.S. a long time ago," Anthony Mulbah, a student at the University of Monrovia, said in the dilapidated oceanfront capital. "The U.S. remains a strong partner to Liberia." In Liberia, a shortage of space in clinics for isolating victims means patients are being turned away, then infecting others. Ebola spreads rapidly, causes fever and uncontrolled bleeding...
The U.S. intervention comes as the pace of cash and emergency supplies dispatched to the region accelerates.
Before Tuesday, Washington had sent about 100 health officials and committed some $175 million in aid. Other nations, including Cuba, China, France and Britain; have pledged medical workers, health centers and other forms of support. Critics, including regional leaders, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered Ebola in 1976; have said international efforts so far have fallen woefully short...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/16/us-health-ebola-obama-idUSKBN0HB08S20140916
The GOP's immediate response was this:
GOP House guts White House’s request for funds to fight and contain Ebola
By David Ferguson - September 9, 2014
House Republicans have gutted a White House-sponsored bill that would direct funding to the fight to contain the hemorrhagic fever Ebola, which is raging out of control in multiple African countries.
The Hill blog reported that a source familiar with the budget negotiations confirmed that House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) will agree to provide only $40 million of the $88 million the Obama administration asked for in its 2015 budget.
Twenty-five million dollars of the $40 million would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $15 to the Biological Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in order to speed up production of an experimental anti-Ebola drug.
The Obama administration originally asked for $58 million for BARDA, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is tasked with coordinating the nation’s response to public health crises, including medical testing, vaccines, drug development and other products and services associated with “public health and medical consequences of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) accidents, incidents and attacks, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/09/gop-house-guts-white-houses-request-for-funds-to-fight-and-contain-ebola/
to unhappycamper:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1104866
The GOP has been slashing funds since 2010 though, not just recently. Neither Obama nor the Democrats wanted that, the Sequester, the Shut down or to Default. They signed the CR to prevent worse things happening, because there were and are much worse things.
The GOP's latest spin:
GOP Cut 600 Million To CDC; Louie Gohmert Thinks The Answer To Ebola Is Ending Political Correctness
The GOP has cut about $600 million in funds for the Center for Disease Control since 2010, but Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) thinks the real disease is political correctness. The Republicans in Congress did however, ultimately approve $88 million in funding to fight the Ebola virus requested by the White House.
With regards to President Obama sending 3,000 troops to Africa to head off the Ebola virus the Congressman told Fox News that, “The military is not trained to go catch Ebola and die,” and that, “political correctness is going to get people killed in all of these areas.”*
The President ordered the troops to help end the spread of the disease by opening 17 treatment facilities mostly concentrated in the impoverished country of Liberia. There the US military will lead a command center and international relief efforts training up to 500 Liberian health workers a week.
President Obama contends there is no imminent threat to America from Ebola and that any cases that arise could be isolated quickly, but Gohmert says the answer is to end travel between the US and African countries where the disease is prevalent. The rightwing media has even exploited the epidemic to suggest that “Ebola people” could be sneaking across the southern border even though the CDC says there is no evidence that is happening.
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/19450/gop-cut-600-million-cdc-louie-gohmert-thinks-answer-ebola-ending-political-correctness
*Naturally, Gohmert does not know a damned thing, those are primarily our troops trained for medical responses. That is just a tiny slice of what has been going on, and I refuse to accept the characterization of PBO signing a CR that we don't like in the face of the nuclear bomb the GOP has been holding over our heads since people who believed that 'both parties are the same, both parties are to blame.'
That is a meme from those who want to depress the Democratic vote or are Libertarians. Because the Libertarians are honest in that regard, to them both parties are the same, as they are not Libertarians. That's the rub most people don't get when they say this on the media, etc. They see both parties as the same, both parties with dirty hands, since they aren't their party.
But what they are not honest about is that they would eliminate the CDC and every other program Democrats are trying to save to save lives.
EOM.
By Jeff Mason and James Harding Giahyue - Sep 16, 2014
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, September 16, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
ATLANTA/MONROVIA (Reuters) -
...Obama's plan calls for sending 3,000 troops, including engineers and medical personnel; establishing a regional command and control center in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, commanded by Major General Darryl Williams, who arrived there on Tuesday; and forming a staging area in Senegal to help distribute personnel and aid on the ground. It also calls for building 17 treatment centers with 100 beds each; placing U.S. Public Health Service personnel in new field hospitals in Liberia; training thousands of healthcare workers for six months or longer; and creating an "air bridge" to get health workers and medical supplies into West Africa more quickly. The worst Ebola outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976 has already killed nearly 2,500 people and is threatening to spread elsewhere in Africa. Obama said "the world is looking to us" to take the lead against Ebola, but urged other nations also to take action because the epidemic is "spiraling out of control" and "people are literally dying in the streets..."
Obama said that if the outbreak is not stopped now, hundreds of thousands of people may become infected, "with profound political and economic and security implications for all of us."
"This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security. It’s a potential threat to global security, if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic. That has profound effects on all of us, even if we are not directly contracting the disease," Obama added...
Liberians hailed the word that U.S. troops were coming, recalling a military operation in 2003 that helped stabilize the country during a civil war. "This is welcome news. This is what we expected from the U.S. a long time ago," Anthony Mulbah, a student at the University of Monrovia, said in the dilapidated oceanfront capital. "The U.S. remains a strong partner to Liberia." In Liberia, a shortage of space in clinics for isolating victims means patients are being turned away, then infecting others. Ebola spreads rapidly, causes fever and uncontrolled bleeding...
The U.S. intervention comes as the pace of cash and emergency supplies dispatched to the region accelerates.
Before Tuesday, Washington had sent about 100 health officials and committed some $175 million in aid. Other nations, including Cuba, China, France and Britain; have pledged medical workers, health centers and other forms of support. Critics, including regional leaders, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered Ebola in 1976; have said international efforts so far have fallen woefully short...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/16/us-health-ebola-obama-idUSKBN0HB08S20140916
The GOP's immediate response was this:
GOP House guts White House’s request for funds to fight and contain Ebola
By David Ferguson - September 9, 2014
House Republicans have gutted a White House-sponsored bill that would direct funding to the fight to contain the hemorrhagic fever Ebola, which is raging out of control in multiple African countries.
The Hill blog reported that a source familiar with the budget negotiations confirmed that House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) will agree to provide only $40 million of the $88 million the Obama administration asked for in its 2015 budget.
Twenty-five million dollars of the $40 million would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $15 to the Biological Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in order to speed up production of an experimental anti-Ebola drug.
The Obama administration originally asked for $58 million for BARDA, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is tasked with coordinating the nation’s response to public health crises, including medical testing, vaccines, drug development and other products and services associated with “public health and medical consequences of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) accidents, incidents and attacks, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/09/gop-house-guts-white-houses-request-for-funds-to-fight-and-contain-ebola/
to unhappycamper:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1104866
The GOP has been slashing funds since 2010 though, not just recently. Neither Obama nor the Democrats wanted that, the Sequester, the Shut down or to Default. They signed the CR to prevent worse things happening, because there were and are much worse things.
The GOP's latest spin:
GOP Cut 600 Million To CDC; Louie Gohmert Thinks The Answer To Ebola Is Ending Political Correctness
The GOP has cut about $600 million in funds for the Center for Disease Control since 2010, but Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) thinks the real disease is political correctness. The Republicans in Congress did however, ultimately approve $88 million in funding to fight the Ebola virus requested by the White House.
With regards to President Obama sending 3,000 troops to Africa to head off the Ebola virus the Congressman told Fox News that, “The military is not trained to go catch Ebola and die,” and that, “political correctness is going to get people killed in all of these areas.”*
The President ordered the troops to help end the spread of the disease by opening 17 treatment facilities mostly concentrated in the impoverished country of Liberia. There the US military will lead a command center and international relief efforts training up to 500 Liberian health workers a week.
President Obama contends there is no imminent threat to America from Ebola and that any cases that arise could be isolated quickly, but Gohmert says the answer is to end travel between the US and African countries where the disease is prevalent. The rightwing media has even exploited the epidemic to suggest that “Ebola people” could be sneaking across the southern border even though the CDC says there is no evidence that is happening.
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/19450/gop-cut-600-million-cdc-louie-gohmert-thinks-answer-ebola-ending-political-correctness
*Naturally, Gohmert does not know a damned thing, those are primarily our troops trained for medical responses. That is just a tiny slice of what has been going on, and I refuse to accept the characterization of PBO signing a CR that we don't like in the face of the nuclear bomb the GOP has been holding over our heads since people who believed that 'both parties are the same, both parties are to blame.'
That is a meme from those who want to depress the Democratic vote or are Libertarians. Because the Libertarians are honest in that regard, to them both parties are the same, as they are not Libertarians. That's the rub most people don't get when they say this on the media, etc. They see both parties as the same, both parties with dirty hands, since they aren't their party.
But what they are not honest about is that they would eliminate the CDC and every other program Democrats are trying to save to save lives.
EOM.
We are talking about people dying, folks being infected and others possibly facing infection by no fault of their own....and other sick (yes, I SAID IT) folks are making this LIFE and DEATH issue into a partisan political game of hot potato. 
What a screwed up world we live in.....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5618608
Funny how you all managed to find the same obscure article. It is not a "gem." The article is poorly worded and does not reflect that the "increase" was not at the urging of the GOP but Dems. Further, the $567M "increase" amounts to less than the $750M that was previously cut due to budget cuts forced by the GOP.
The Huffpo article you cite points out Obama wanted more money for the CDC. He is trying to compromise with the GOP who doesn't want to spend a dime, so he is asking for less than what many Dems and the CDC wants. He is doing his best to get at least something through the insanely evil GOP House majority. The same GOP who gleefully blew $24 billion on its government shutdown to force more cuts.
Now, the GOP just wants to hold do-nothing hearings to bash Obama and fear monger over ebola. But you reserve your outrage for Dems.
Funny how you all managed to find the same obscure article. It is not a "gem." The article is poorly worded and does not reflect that the "increase" was not at the urging of the GOP but Dems. Further, the $567M "increase" amounts to less than the $750M that was previously cut due to budget cuts forced by the GOP.
The Huffpo article you cite points out Obama wanted more money for the CDC. He is trying to compromise with the GOP who doesn't want to spend a dime, so he is asking for less than what many Dems and the CDC wants. He is doing his best to get at least something through the insanely evil GOP House majority. The same GOP who gleefully blew $24 billion on its government shutdown to force more cuts.
Now, the GOP just wants to hold do-nothing hearings to bash Obama and fear monger over ebola. But you reserve your outrage for Dems.
such budget-cutting is hunky-dore with 'pukes as they gloat over their stewardship. 
