Republican Sequester Prevented Health Agencies From Stopping Ebola Spread

[deminks]

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/04/gop-sequester-prevented-health-agencies-stopping-ebola-spread.html

Consequences happen as a result of a particular action or set of conditions, and heading into the midterm elections, it is certain politicians will be reminding Americans that elections have consequences in the coming weeks. Often, the results of an election may not bear fruit immediately, and although the consequence of teabagger Republicans taking control of the House and the nation’s purse-strings in the 2010 midterms were immediately evident, they are still and will continue wreaking havoc on the nation for several more years.

(snip)

Two weeks ago in the Senate, committees on Appropriations and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions convened a hearing to “discuss” what kind of resources are necessary to address, and stop the virus from spreading. According to the director of the CDC National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Dr. Beth Bell, the epidemic could have been stopped if more had been done sooner to build global health security.

(snip)

Despite warnings from economic experts and myriad agencies across the government, Republicans parlayed their fear-mongering about deficits, debt, and “foolish, wasteful, out-of-control, and unnecessary spending” into a devastating sequester that put a major dent in the CDC’s budget that is bearing exactly the fruit experts warned Republicans about. NIH representative Anthony Fauci reiterated Bell’s conclusion and told the committees, “honestly it’s (the sequester) been a significant impact on us. It has both in an acute and a chronic, insidious way eroded our ability to respond in the way that I and my colleagues would like to see us be able to respond to these emerging threats. And in my institute particularly, that’s responsible for responding on the dime to an emerging infectious disease threat, this is particularly damaging.”

The Republicans’ precious sequester required the NIH to cut its budget by $1.55 billion in 2013 across the board that had the desired result of affecting every area of medical research within the agency. Bell agreed with Fauci that her department is leading the U.S. intervention in West Africa, but complained the agency is being hamstrung by a $13 million sequester cut that a minuscule increase in 2014 and 2015 is not going to make up in time to effectively stop the virus’s inevitable spread.

(snip)

This is not the first negative consequence of Republicans’ austerity and sequester cuts. Last week the head of the Secret Service, Julia Pierson, said cuts due to the sequester had hurt staffing and had the agency “down 500 employees.” Republicans claimed the cuts were necessary to rein in spending across the board and subsequently have now affected Veterans, the EPA, IRS, Secret Service, and all national health agencies responsible for stopping real threats like an infectious disease running rampant throughout the population.

(end snip)

As the subtitle suggests, Austerity Kills.

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. I think I missed the news that Ebola has spread. One case <> "spread". nt

[Kingofalldems]

2. Good try.

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. Can you link to this "spread?"

I think people would like to know that it's spread. You might also supply that news to the CDC...I am not sure they are aware that Ebola has spread, either.

[Kingofalldems]

4. OK

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-46-people-being-monitored-family-moved-165901763.html;_ylt=A0LEVzAWOjBU2fEAhmVXNyoA

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. Neither of those indicates a "spread" of Ebola. This isn't even semantics.

You're fearmongering.

[kestrel91316]

5. I guess you've missed those 7000+ cases in West Africa, which are a vital national security threat

to the US and therefore fall under the domain of CDC and DoD.

We don't live in a safe little bubble.

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. I also missed that the US CDC is actually the world's CDC. nt

[malaise]

8. Destroy public health and destroy ourselves

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025618057

[Sopkoviak]

9. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will see an 8.2 percent budget increase

for fiscal 2014, thanks to a $1.1 trillion spending bill announced by Congress Jan. 13.

This influx of cash will raise the CDC budget to $6.9 billion, which is $567 million more than it received in 2013. This is more than the agency anticipated, because the president's fiscal year 2014 budget request for it was just $6.6 billion -- a decrease of $270 million from fiscal 2012.

So they're operating on a budget of 6.9 BILLION DOLLARS this year.

There has been 1, ONE confirmed case of Ebola in the United States.

Don't you think that they could have scraped together enough quarters and pocket change to make a proper response to the situation in Texas?

Or would that be too much to ask?

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2014/01/17/cdc-wins-in-budget-deal.html?page=all