Even Rick Scott thinks the GOP Congress is negligent on Zika

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/even-rick-scott-thinks-the-gop-congress-negligent-zika?cid=sm_fb_maddow


Even Rick Scott thinks the GOP Congress is negligent on Zika
06/02/16 10:00 AM—Updated 06/02/16 10:08 AM
By Steve Benen


Yesterday marked a milestone of sorts: it was 100 days ago that the Obama administration urged the Republican Congress to pass a $1.9 billion package to address the Zika virus threat. So far, GOP lawmakers have decided they don’t like the request, instead approving separate, smaller emergency bills about which Republicans still disagree.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) may be a bitter partisan, but even he’s fed up with his party’s negligence.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott pleaded with President Obama on Wednesday to provide his state with mosquito traps, insecticide and other gear they need to fight the Zika virus, saying it is “profoundly disappointing” that Congress failed to pass a funding package before the start of hurricane season.

Zika causes serious birth defects, and the Republican governor said his state’s hot-and-wet climate is about to get a lot worse, allowing disease-carrying insects to flourish.

“Despite repeated calls for action, Congress has failed to act and now they are on vacation,” Mr. Scott wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama.

The Republican governor added, “Florida needs action from the federal government now.”

Unfortunately, “now” doesn’t appear to be much of an option. The Republican-led Senate approved a $1.1 billion package, while the Republican-led House passed a bill about half as large. Under the current Republican approach, it may be “well into the summer, or even longer” before Congress approves an inadequate final bill to address the Zika virus.

CDC Director Tom Frieden said last week his “jaw dropped” when he began to understand the exasperating pace at which Congress is moving. “Three months in an epidemic is an eternity,” he told reporters.

Lawmakers are currently in the middle of a 10-day vacation, which comes on the heels of a separate 10-day vacation last month. In July, Congress is only scheduled to be in session for a total of six days, and members won’t work at all in the month of August. All told, federal lawmakers will have the lightest schedule in 2016 of any Congress since 1956.

In February, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared, “We need to get out in front of the Zika virus.” That was on Feb. 2, shortly before Congress took … wait for it … a 10-day vacation in the middle of February.

[djean111]

1. That is only because Rick Scott wants something.

I live in Florida. Scott will continue to vilify the federal government AND ask for money. We still have not expanded Medicaid - Scott said okay, expand it., but only because he was running for his second term, and only because he knew it would not get passed by his minions.

[babylonsister]

2. I now live here, too. I do know how

uncooperative he is, so this kind of shocked me.

[djean111]

3. It is all for show. Really. n/t

[gratuitous]

4. So what's your proposal, Gov. Scott?

The president can't just conjure up funds from thin air. President Obama would like to close the concentration camp at Guantanamo, but Congress won't authorize the expenditure. That doesn't seem to bother you at all. President Obama would like to address this public health emergency, but Congress won't spend the money, the equivalent of 23 hours of the annual defense budget.

What do you propose, Governor? And where have you been for the last six years on things that need to be done?

[malaise]

5. Have you ever seen the mosquitoes in Florida

although given his views on climate change common sense doesn't follow.

[babylonsister]

6. Exactly!

Or, does he know something we don't?

[malaise]

7. It's spreading faster than trump's lies

We have two pregnant women with the disease here. It will be out of control in weeks and that's before the Olympics

[babylonsister]

8. Obviously no one is

panicking here; seems like we should at least know what's going on, and I for one don't. Why isn't the newz all over this?

[malaise]

9. As Mutabaruka said in Jamaica this afternoon

It's not coming from Africa - remember the Ebola panick