Sunday, October 19, 2014

Remember this when Democrats blame GOP "budget cuts," "the sequester" or "government shutdown" for the Obama administration's incompetent response to the Ebola outbreak



● Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler: 'Accusation that GOP cuts have stymied Ebola efforts doesn’t add up' = "Four Pinocchios."

● "Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's designated fact-checker gave the left's claims that Republicans alone were responsible for alleged "cuts" to Ebola research four Pinocchios (i.e., a "whopper").

● More Glenn Kessler: 'The absurd claim that only Republicans are to blame for cuts to Ebola research' = "Four Pinocchios."

● IBD: Budget 'Cuts' Aren't Why CDC Fumbled Ebola (includes chart "What Budget Cuts?") 

● Say what?! [Quoting] The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent more than $39 million on obese lesbians, origami condoms, texting drunks, and dozens of other projects that could have been scrapped in favor of developing an Ebola vaccine. [End]

● POLITICO: The Facts About Ebola Funding:
[Quoting] In recent years, the CDC has received significant amounts of funding. Unfortunately, however, many of those funds have been diverted away from programs that can fight infectious diseases, and toward programs far afield from the CDC’s original purpose.
Consider the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a new series of annual mandatory appropriations created by Obamacare. Over the past five years, the CDC has received just under $3 billion in transfers from the fund. Yet only 6 percent—$180 million—of that $3 billion went toward building epidemiology and laboratory capacity. Especially given the agency’s postwar roots as the Communicable Disease Center, one would think that “detecting and responding to infectious diseases and other public health threats” warrants a larger funding commitment.
Instead, the Obama administration has focused the CDC on other priorities. While protecting Americans from infectious diseases received only $180 million from the Prevention Fund, the community transformation grant program received nearly three times as much money—$517.3 million over the same five-year period. [End]

● Blaming Ebola Outbreak on "Republican Cuts" to Health Budgets? (includes three charts) Reason.com editor in chief Nick Gillespie:
[Quoting] Spending grew rapidly under full GOP control and then leveled off at high amounts once divided government and the fiscal crisis kicked in. The report notes that "Pandemic Preparedness funding through the GHP account totaled $50 million, a decrease of $22.5 million (-31%) below FY14." Let's stipulate two things. First, $50 million is both a lot of money and not a lot of money in terms of federal spending. I doubt anyone seriously thinks that spending more in the year to come would have stopped Ebola outbreaks that began in fiscal 2014. Second, the requested decrease is in President Obama's budget. Is he a Republican now?
Then there's the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose role in developing new medicines and interventions has been supposedly destroyed by cuts over the years, right? According to its budget documents, the NIH got about $23 billion in fiscal 2002 (George W. Bush's first budget year), a figure that rose to $30.2 billion in 2009 (his last budget year) before peaking at $31 billion in 2010. It dipped a bit from then and came to $30.1 billion in 2014, which is about the same amount the NIH requested in President Obama's 2015 budget plan. [End]

● FAIL: Democrats try to deflect blame for Ebola outbreak, fail abysmally

● Guy Benson: New Democratic ad says GOP budget cuts caused Ebola crisis or something

● FLASHBACK: Obama adviser was ‘architect’ of showdown
Ed Klein: "She [Valerie Jarrett] convinced the president that a government shutdown and default offered a great opportunity to demonize the Republicans and help the Democrats win back a majority in the House of Representatives in 2014. ... Valerie also came with the idea of using the words 'hostage,' and 'ransom,' and 'terrorists' against the Republicans."

An opinion: Aside from the fact that Democrats are averse to passing or even having a budget, i.e., "If you can't budget, you can't govern," expect them to continue to try and use this blaming strategy for whatever Obama failings apply, there are certainly enough of them.


Related links...

Who knew that Obama's "We are the ones we've been waiting for" meant him allowing Ebola-infected non-U.S. citizens into America?!
http://networkedblogs.com/10Lsok

FWIW: Some Ebola-related links (in rough chronological order) #Ebola
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=883272595018630 
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