April 27, 2009

Playing politics with public health

News quiz: which party fought to keep money devoted to pandemic preparation out of the stimulus bill?

If you guessed the "Morally Bankrupt Party of Permanent Irrelevance," you win a free intarnet!


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 such as porcine antichrist Karl Rove and congressional Republicans.

[T]hey bet that they would be able to score their political points without any consequences.

Now that fears of a pandemic have been raised, however, it is appropriate to ask whether individuals who are so manifestly irresponsible and partisan should be taken seriously.

And why SOME of them are not yet rotting in prison.

Bonus nutfuckery: the GOP are also delaying the confirmation of the HHS secretary.

Disclaimer: some Dems also voted against the pandemic funding, and they also should be ridiculed. And rest assured, wingnutopia is already busy doing just that. But it was the rethugs who were all over the media blasting the very idea.

Along with volcano monitoring.


1 comment:

Grandpa Eddie said...

And Limballs is blaming the Swine flu on Obama because the borders were open and we weren't prepared.