Price squandered 1million + on luxury travel while slashing billions from health and research

[Tanuki]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/09/29/daily-202-putting-tom-price-s-charter-flights-in-perspective/59cd5e8f30fb0468cea81c73/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.e11514fae1fb

...."It came out last night that Price also used military aircraft for trips to Africa and Europe this spring, and to Asia in the summer, at a cost of more than $500,000 to taxpayers. Politico, which broke that story, notes that the reimbursements do not cover any military planes: “The overseas trips bring the total cost to taxpayers of Price’s travels to more than $1 million since May. … Price’s wife, Betty, accompanied him on the military flights, while other members of the secretary’s delegation flew commercially to Europe. … But one of Price’s recent predecessors, Kathleen Sebelius, who served for five years under President Barack Obama, said she never took a military plane on her many trips overseas; she always flew commercially.”

......

Many of Price’s charter flights, which numbered more than two dozen in total, were so that he could be the lead cheerleader for repealing Obamacare. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Officeestimates the bill that passed the House in May, which Price aggressively advocated for, would have left 23 million more Americans uninsured by 2026 than under current law.
The Trump administration’s May budgetcalled for cutting $1.2 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is part of HHS, including an $82 million cut at the center that works on vaccine-preventable and respiratory diseases, such as influenza and measles.Price’s budget proposed a cut of $186 millionfrom programs at CDC’s center on HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis prevention. There was also$222 million in cuts to the agency’s chronic disease prevention programs, which are designed to help people prevent diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and obesity. The agency’s center on birth defects and developmental disabilities saw a 26 percent cut to its budget. The experts there are still trying to understand the full consequences of Zika infections in pregnant women and their babies.

Price’s first budget also sought $1 billion in cuts for the National Cancer Institute, $575 million in cuts for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and $838 million in cuts for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The administration asked Congress to slash the overall National Institutes of Health budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion. These cuts went further than even some of the most conservative GOP lawmakers were willing to go."....(more)

 

[Sneederbunk]

1. Needs to pack for K Street ASAP.

[Angry Dragon]

2. and another Trump Hemorrhoid

I am getting a Trumpeze Headache ................ glad I have Trumpcare

[smirkymonkey]

3. K&R

Lock him up!

Has there ever been a more corrupt administration in the history of this country? And I'll guarantee we don't know the half of it yet.