USAID Administrator: GOP Budget Cuts Would Lead To The Deaths Of 70,000 Children

[cal04]

USAID Administrator: GOP Budget Cuts Would Lead To The Deaths Of 70,000 Children Globally
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/31/usaid-administrator-gop-cuts/

Yesterday, the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a budget hearing on the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the primary agency in the government responsible for dispensing humanitarian aid and assisting global development efforts.

As Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin notes, one moment of the hearing provided a particularly startling fact about H.R. 1, the House Republicans’ bill for continuing appropriations to fund the government. USAID administrator Rajiv Shah explained to Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) that the agency was committed to its mission of battling global poverty, but that H.R. 1 would severely gut its ability to battle easily preventable deaths among children — and even lead to the deaths of as many as 70,000 kids globally. Dent, apparently unmoved by Shah’s testimony, immediately asked to change the subject:

SHAH: We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying. Of that 70,000, 30,000 would come from malarian control programs that would have to be scaled back, specifically. The other 40,000 is broken out as 24,000 who would die because of a lack of support for immunizations and other investments, and 16,000 would be because of the lack of skilled attendants at birth. <...> There’s a way to do this that doesn’t have to cost lives. <...>

DENT: Can I just quickly change subjects?

Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/31/usaid-administrator-gop-cuts/

[EFerrari]

1. Before getting weepy about theoretical dead children

it would be nice to see a break down of USAID's expenditures. Many of them are political, not humanitarian.

[valerief]

2. As long as they die as children and not embryos, the GOP are happy. nt

[Lorien]

6. Bingo. Fing sick!! nt

[woodsprite]

3. But the important thing is they wouldn't have died in the womb

at the decision or hands of someone else. It would be the repub death squads, so that's OK by them.

:sarcasm:

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Long as they're out of the womb, the pukes won't care.

(I see that valerief and woodsprite beat me to the same comment)

[Lorien]

5. The "pro-life" party. Yeah, right.

:grr:

[MidwestTransplant]

7. Once you are brithed you are on your own.

[ThomCat]

8. Can we all just admit now that Republicans are the Death Party?

They want poor people to die.
They want minority people to die.
They want foreign people to die.
They want women to die, Especially if they dare to have any rights, or any pleasure.

They clearly believe that life is a privilege reserved only for them, and for the rich. :grr:

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Probably no one here will argue with that.

How can we get the general public to see it?