By now you may have heard about the vicious Democrat ad that seeks to link GOP leaders seeking spending control with the Ebola outbreak. I won't link to the ad as it uses the bodies of dead Africans in a cynical attempt to make their shameful case. One attempt is to suggest that the Budget Sequester, which was Obama's idea, was to blame. Despite the fact that the Sequester had marginal impact on spending as the chart below demonstrates:
Readers may recall the scare tactics the Obama Administration employed in a vain attempt to make it appear that the Sequester was stopping the business of government. Except of course that the Administration hired more guards to keep the Parks and public monuments closed for political reasons they they would otherwise have had on duty for normal operations.
But back to the CDC. It was the Obama Administration which proposed cuts to the CDC:
Apr 10, 2013 (CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) takes a hit of about $270 million in the Obama administration's proposed fiscal year 2014 budget, including significant cuts to biodefense and emergency preparedness programs, officials revealed today.From Center for Disease Control to Community Organizers
But cutting CDC's budget wasn't all the Obama Administration did. They reprogrammed CDC to make it another version of Community Organizing. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal writes:
Consider the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a new series of annual mandatory appropriations created by Obamacare. Over the past five years, the CDC has received just under $3 billion in transfers from the fund. Yet only 6 percent—$180 million—of that $3 billion went toward building epidemiology and laboratory capacity. Especially given the agency’s postwar roots as the Communicable Disease Center, one would think that “detecting and responding to infectious diseases and other public health threats” warrants a larger funding commitment.Further undermining CDC's mission is that many of the grants they handed out are in direct contradiction with federal law banning the use of funds for lobbying or political purposes. But since Obama's Department of Justice has become the fox guarding the hen house there's little chance the law will be enforced.
Instead, the Obama administration has focused the CDC on other priorities. While protecting Americans from infectious diseases received only $180 million from the Prevention Fund, the community transformation grant program received nearly three times as much money—$517.3 million over the same five-year period.
The CDC’s website makes clear the objectives of community transformation grants. The program funds neighborhood interventions like “increasing access to healthy foods by supporting local farmers and developing neighborhood grocery stores,” or “promoting improvements in sidewalks and street lighting to make it safe and easy for people to walk and ride bikes.” Bike lanes and farmer’s markets may indeed help a community—but they would do little to combat dangerous diseases like Ebola, SARS or anthrax.
Of course none of these facts will stop the runaway crazy train of lies Democrats are willing to say during election season (or any time). We've already seen that they will say anything to get elected.
And as one Twitter user suggests:
Government incompetence is always the Republicans’ fault because they refused to fund more government incompetence.
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) October 13, 2014
Using the bodies of dead Africans for a political ad is a new low even for Democrats. No amount of funding, especially for street lights and sidewalks, would have prevented the Ebola outbreak. Politicizing tragedy is the shameless last gasp of sure losers!\UPDATE: GOP House added more funds to CDC than requested by Obama. But that won't stop the big lie!
UPDATE: Washington Post Factchecker Gives Four Pinocchios to lie GOP to blame for CDC cuts.
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