Monday, April 27, 2009

MORE PROOF THE REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE ABOUT AMERICA AND AMERICANS

The Rethuglicans are well known for trying to squash any attempt by anyone to try to improve the lives and health of American citizens. They have fought the Democrats on improving health care, and have tried to block the appointment of Kathleen Sebilis as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. This, alone, has held up the work of both the DHHS and the Center for Disease Control.

There were many things they tried to strip from the stimulis bill before it was passed. One of the important parts, one that we find out is very important, that they did suceed in stripping from the bill was for flu pandemic preparedness.

From Alter Net:

Republican politicking continues to put the whole nation at risk.

Remember way back in the day, President Obama delivered his Not Really The State Of The Union address, and the GOP trotted out Future Of The Republican Party Supra-Genius Bobbly Jindal to provide a rebuttal? Well, we all had some laughs, didn't we? Mainly because Jindal was all: "They want to spend stimulus money on volcano monitoring? Why everyone knows that the Hill Witch keeps tabs on our volcanoes by floating chicken bones in her own intestinal ichor!" And then Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted, suggesting there might be something to this "let's monitor volcanoes with government-funded science" idea.

Well, as it turns out, volcano monitoring wasn't the only worthwhile public safety program that was deemed extravagant in the stimulus package, funding for pandemic preparation was axed as well. And playing a critical role was Susan Collins -- for whom the necessity of obtaining her vote is in inverse proportion to the intelligence she shows in policy making:

Famously, Maine Senator Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate's version of the stimulus measure.

Naturally, it's tough to keep an economy stimulated if productivity gets diminished by a pandemic. And, hey, it turns out that the lack of a stable and well-funded public health infrastructure may not be so good for economic recovery as a whole:

On Monday, the question began to be answered, as Associated Press reported -- under the headline: "World Markets Struck By Swine Flu Fears" -- that: "World stock markets fell Monday as investors worried that a deadly outbreak of swine flu in Mexico could go global and derail any global economic recovery."

Before U.S. markets opened, the Wall Street Journal reported: "U.S. stock futures fell sharply Monday as the outbreak of deadly swine flu stoked fears that a possible recovery in the global economy could be derailed."

All of this is playing out at a time when HHS nominee sits on the sidelines, her nomination held up at the behest of pro-life organizations who want to paint her as the "Abortion Queen." The hold up is pointless - merely delaying the inevitable for "another week." Maybe the swine flu would be good enough to wait!


(Hat-tip to Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post)

12 comments:

A World Quite Mad said...

I wonder if the right-wing wackos here still want to secede. After all who needs the Feds? You know, the CDC. "We don't need no stinkin' CDC."

Gordon said...

Great minds again. I posted something very similar.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Gordon - Ya ever wonder if there's a cross country connection of some kind here?

I haven't been out reading much yet today, been posting and cleaning up the mess from the flooding caused by the 3 inches of rain we got Sunday.

Grandpa Eddie said...

AWQM - The right-wingnuts think there's too much govt, so we are supposed to do without things that actually help people. It's much better to waste money on things they are concerned about, like lining the pockets of their banker friends.

A World Quite Mad said...

Don't forget about lining the pockets of their religious wing-nut preachers too. You know, the ones who scream it's the end-of-the-world (send us money or god will hate you), and it's god's wrath because no one's burning secular humanists and homosexuals at the stake, yaddy yaddy yadda.

Same crap, different day. ;)

Gordon said...

I think our connection is more universal than merely cross-country - utter distaste for anything Repug.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Indeed A World Quite Mad, indeed!

Grandpa Eddie said...

I think you're right Gordon. There's literally millions of us!

Lowell said...

I thought you were rattling around in my brain again!

Grandpa Eddie said...

That be me!

Anonymous said...

RNC's Steele yesterday - whimpered he and his couldn't foresee the Swine Flu.

Tex Gov Perry - secessionist maximus
is now requesting Federal Aid to battle Swine Flu.

Michelle Bachman opined how interesting it is that the other swine flu pandemic occurred during Dem administration of Carter.

The last swine flu outbreak occurred not under Carter's watch, but under Ford, a Republican.

Grandpa Eddie said...

I See Stupid People - I heard the batshit crazy bitch Bachmann say that yesterday. I knew right away that see was wrong, but that facist cunt will say anything to make Obama or any other Democrat president look bad. She's blaming this outbreak on Obama for going to Mexico.

I don't know why the good people of Minnesota put up with her bullshit.