John Nichols, writing in The Nation blog, The Beat, does an exceptional job of telling how Republican demagoging for political advantage, coupled with Senate Democrats’ willingness to knuckle under, sucked funding for combating a viral pandemic out of the stimulus bill early this year.
Here’s how the post kicks off, but you really should read the whole thing.
When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year’s emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.
Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse — with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.
But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans — led by Maine Senator Susan Collins — aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.
Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey’s attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.
And partisan attacks on his efforts seem not just creepy, but dangerously shortsighted.
So, what was really important, back when the Senate was wrangling about the stimulus bill?
Was it that an economic stimulus bill isn’t the proper vehicle for funding a public health measure? Was it that supposedly moderate Senate Republicans should get a chance to flex their political muscle and thus feel relevant? Or, was it that taxpayers should be spared the expense of being prepared for something the current Swine Flu outbreak could become almost overnight?
To anyone with eyes to see and a grain of sense, it must be clear by now that irresponsible, anything-to-win, anti-science pols of the GOP go way beyond just being captives of a backward and selfish ideology that makes them wrong about issue after issue. Any more, Republicans present an imminent threat to public health, safety and peace of mind.
Oh, and as if Republicans haven’t done enough already to wreck the economy and get in the way of recovery at every turn, their half-assed meddling with the stimulus bill could devastate the economy further, should the swine flu outbreak become a full-blown pandemic.
It’s maddening to have to add that, in instances like this, it’s hard to see how the Senate’s too-often weak-kneed Democrats are a whole lot better.
I think it was all about taxpayers being spared any kind of expense, whether it was for rebuilding roads or schools (and putting people to work doing those sorts of jobs so they could earn paychecks and stimulate the economy the way the GOP says we should) or for paying for other peoples’ “problems” like bad mortgages, medical conditions, poverty, etc. (that is, things you should be able to pull yourself up out of by your own bootstraps).
Being the moderate she is, I find it a shame Collins took that stance when she did. Even given that, I have hopes she and Olympia Snowe will desert the GOP like Arlen Specter did today.
One of the most conservative outfits in the United States is the Boy Scouts of America. Their motto is “Be prepared”.
Too bad so many conservative leaders in our country seem to think preparedness is not important.
Preparedness to the GOP ringleaders is only important as long as it involves their preparedness to accept a Caribbean junket from their money-throwing lobbyists. Science has no place in the party of the apocalyptics who refuse to accept that evolution happened and is happening still, and pandemics can be explained through simple biological science. But really, the morons probably thought “oh, it’s like AIDS, only poor people and gays will get it, so who cares, and we don’t need to spend money on it.”
We better hope this thing doesn’t turn into a pandemic, because the last time there was a pandemic flu, tens of millions died, and that was only a few decades ago. http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
At least now we have the CDC.
Snave, with Democrats like Lieberman and Specter, who needs Republicans? It would be better if , as Specter said he’d like to see, some moderate Republicans were to stage a rebellion to take their party back. Instead, Hagel, like several before him, just checked out. Specter decided to switch. Snowe and Collins show no inclination to fight.
I’m reminded of the adage, “All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing.”
Bee, Republicans clearly see selfishness as both a virtue and political philosophy. If this instance of it backfires on them, they’re likely to learn a lesson about being penny wise and pound foolish.