Democratic pundits and political activist groups on the Left say Republicans have endangered the lives of U.S. voters, making the spread of the deadly Ebola virus all the more likely with budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
“Gee, thanks, Republicans!” Democratic strategist Paul Begala said in a tweet Sunday, referring to a Huffington Post article titled, “Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director.”
“What’s wrong with today’s [GOP]?” he added.
And it’s not just hints and allegations from people like Begala and NIH director Francis S. Collins. Agenda Project Action Fund, a progressive political action committee, on Monday announced a new campaign, titled “Republican Cuts Kill,” aimed at placing the blame for recent Ebola cases in the U.S. on GOP-backed budget cuts.
The anti-Republican campaign is “a multi-pronged blitzkrieg attack that lays blame for the Ebola crisis exactly where it belongs — at the feet of the Republican lawmakers,” the group said in a statement Monday.
“Like rabid dogs in a butcher shop, Republicans have indiscriminately shredded everything in their path, including critical programs that could have dealt with the Ebola crisis before it reached our country,” the statement added, blasting the GOP for its “fanatical hatred for our government.”
The NIH has in the past awarded massive amounts of cash to questionable programs, including $325,525 to a study that concluded that the most successful marriages are the ones in which wives know how to calm down.
AP Action Fund released its 60-second Ebola ad this week, targeting Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and a few other GOP lawmakers who have voted in the past to dial back NIH’s annual budget, which has hovered near $30 billion in recent years.
Here’s a chart illustrating U.S. Global Health Program spending — the money going toward combatting disease in countries like Liberia — since fiscal year 2001:
As the above illustrates, U.S. Global Health Program spending is still at all-time highs.
Further, this chart from the Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy shows that the supposedly “devastating” 2013 sequester budget cuts had a very small affect on overall government spending:
Lastly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s infectious disease budget has actually increased over the last four years:
EIZD_Factsheet by Becket Adams
With the new Ebola-related campaign targeting GOP legislators, AP Action Fund is the “first major progressive group to directly blame GOP budget cuts for the nearly 4,000 deaths caused by the Ebola crisis,” the group boasted.
“Our hope is that this ad and the accompanying report will spark a national conversation about the utter stupidity of the GOP’s approach to government policy. Clearly, a party that despises government will purposefully underfund it, while a party that fundamentally understands the positive role of government will ensure it functions effectively,” the group’s statement added.
AP Action Fund will place ads in Kentucky the week of October 18th, with additional ads planned for North Carolina and Kansas.
“We hope this ad will begin to establish the idea that only those who understand government should be allowed to run it,” the group said.
The Ebola-campaign attack comes as lawmakers across the nation brace for the Nov. 4 midterm elections, an event that many analysts predict will end in the GOP taking control of the Senate.
Sens. Mitch McConnell and Pat Roberts are both facing tough challenges, while incumbent Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., is holding on to a very slim 46-42 percent lead over Republican businessman Thom Tillis, according to Real Clear Politics.
