GOP Stripped Flu Pandemic Preparedness From Stimulus [UPDATED]

[UPDATED, below]

[with reporting from Ryan Grim]

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.

Via The Nation:

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.

The wisdom of Collins' lawmaking is already being celebrated, in video:

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."

Karl Rove, from his perch at the Wall Street Journal, criticized the inclusion of "$462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations," on the grounds that "health care also added jobs" in the previous year. Such expenditures were, to Rove, "disturbing" and an example of President Obama's "lack of engagement and leadership."

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!

UPDATE: HuffPost's Ryan Grim has been chasing down comments today, in an attempt to measure the effect the swine flu outbreak is having on everyone's hindsight:

"We had $870 million in the committee-reported stimulus bill for buying anti-virals, vaccines, planning, etc. It was dropped in Collins-Nelson because it was 'not stimulative,'" said a Senate leadership aide.

"We did put over $500 million in the omnibus, and HHS/DHS are fairly well-supplied, but it was an opportunity lost for being appropriately prepared."

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was among those who had pushed for the pandemic money after pressing the Bush administration to take bird flu seriously.

"The Senator was disappointed that the money was taken out of the economic recovery package because that money was to develop the capacity to produce pandemic vaccines quickly in the U.S. in response to any pandemic," said his spokeswoman Kate Cyrul. "This capacity is not there yet and would not be if we had appropriated the money, but the current outbreak reminds us that we need to be prepared."

Susan Collins' office offered a statement to Glenn Thrush:

As Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Senator Collins has led hearings on pandemic flu preparedness, worked on "bioshield" legislation and funding, and helped strengthen our nation's preparedness for a pandemic flu.

Claims that she is opposed to increased funding for pandemic flu research are blatantly false and politically motivated. In fact, in December 2008, Senator Collins joined in a letter to Senate leaders requesting a $905 million increase for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund at the Department of Health and Human Services.

There is no evidence that federal efforts to address the swine flu outbreak have been hampered by a lack of funds. Senator Collins does, however, believe that it is a problem that the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services still do not have top positions filled. She hopes the Senate will move promptly to confirm Governor Sebelius for HHS Secretary.

Dave Obey (D-Wisc.), who backed the pandemic preparedness funding in the stimulus package, also released a statement today:

"We have been trying to get adequate funding to prepare the nation for a pandemic outbreak since 2005. We tried again as recently as January in the economic recovery package. Whether or not this influenza strain turns out to have pandemic potential, sooner or later some strain will."

"We are not prepared today. Let's hope we don't need to be. Because we need to become prepared as soon as possible, I intend to again request additional funds in the upcoming supplemental."

Here's what Obey said about pandemic funding in the report that accompanied the House version of the recovery package:

Pandemic influenza poses a major threat to the nation's public health, security, and economy. CBO has estimated that an influenza pandemic might cause a decline in U.S. gross domestic product of between 1 and 4.25 percent depending on the severity of the pandemic. Providing additional funding to prepare for and respond to a pandemic will ameliorate the morbidity and mortality associated with worst case scenarios of an influenza pandemic thereby reducing the potential economic burden. Another program funded in this recovery package is BARDA, which supports advanced development and procurement of medical countermeasures, such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents, as well as other emerging infectious diseases. According to a recent independent economic analysis of BARDA, in order to develop countermeasures for all biodefense requirements identified in HHS's Public Health Emergency Countermeasures Enterprise Implementation Plan, significant increased investment in advanced development is required. BARDA also provides for the expansion of the domestic manufacturing infrastructure to support new vaccines and other countermeasures, where an expansion of domestic manufacturing is desired to provide sufficient quantities of products in a timely manner.

RELATED:
GOP Know-Nothings Fought Pandemic Preparedness [The Nation]
Republicans Put Brakes On Sebelius' Nomination [CBS News]
Rove mocked spending on flu preparedness [Raw Story]
Volcano Monitoring and the Stimulus: Cost Effective and a Clear Public Good [The Questionable Authority]

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Comments

[atlantajoe]

10:22 AM on 05/01/2009

does the fact that the democrats control congress and republican­s are in no position to strip anything matter ? You lefties that think you are so smart please answer, how does a minority party strip anything from a bill. If the democrats wanted this funding they could have used some of the 787 billion in the bill to pay it. Most importantl­y, if the dems wanted that in the bill, they would have put it in the bill.

[research]

06:50 PM on 05/02/2009

60

[willfarnaby]

09:42 PM on 04/30/2009

The vermin that is the Republican Party is by far the greatest danger to Americans' and the world's health.

[Chbronze]

09:34 PM on 04/30/2009

Maybe i'm a bit naive, isn't the mission of the CDC to contain pandemics? If so, shouldn't they budget for things like this?

[socialtalker]

01:34 AM on 05/01/2009

do you know what the money that was cut was earmarked for? i dont. perhaps some, or most of money earmarked WOULD HAVE GONE to the CDC, but as i said, i dont know what was in the bill.

[BeefyT]

08:37 PM on 04/30/2009

Just an inconvenie­nt reminder:

Schumer opposed flu pandemic funding in stimulus, too.

“All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitte­d diseases or the flu pandemic, they’re all out,” Schumer said.

[sugarfree]

07:23 PM on 04/30/2009

Its always better to be prepared for FLU season because last year if anyone remember some offices
had a problem with the vaccine received.
No one expected the swine flu but it would have been better to have money ready so the States will have the vaccine to help the people.
Be carefull everyone.

[WongChin]

04:29 PM on 04/30/2009

These people are, frankly, disgusting­. In the name of "fiscal discipline­"--a highly misunderst­ood and mis-define­d term, they are always eager to block money that would go to modernizin­g this country and making it function more efficientl­y.

Fiscal discipline is not just not just holding onto public money, even though the same group doesn't mind giving it away in outsourcin­g and privatizat­ion. Fiscal discipline is investing money wisely, including wise spending on human capital, which in turn includes healthcare (because morbidity and mortality impinge upon productivi­ty) and education (because ignorance is a disease and an educated person is better equipped to survive and be useful to society than the uneducated­).

It is time that leading economists and political economists outside the rightwing begin to define and appropriat­e fiscal discipline­.

Withholdin­g money for fighting pandemics and ridiculing earmarks for studying volcanoes, earthquake­s and having a governor insist in rejecting stimulus money that would fix leaking roofs in schools do not represent fiscal discipline­. They represent fiscal indiscipli­ne of the most foolish type.

[rodbaker]

07:35 PM on 04/30/2009

Tell me WongChin what money are you speaking of? Who is "these people"? In case you have not noticed, we are BROKE. There is no money for nothing!!

(fiscal discipline­, investing money wisely, human capital, healthcare­....), blah, blah, blah, blah. (withholdi­ng money, ridiculing earmarks, volcanoes) blah, blah, blah, you should be a politician­.

You speak of fiscal discipline­. There is no money. So what should we do? Well let's just print some more. You call that discipline­. We have no money, so let's spend more?

You are right, fiscal discipline is a misunderst­ood term... And you have the nerve to call someone else foolish?

Here's a thought. How about Alaska study the Volcano? States want thier schools fixed, then fix'em. That's not the job of the federal Government­. Federal Government needs to keep thier nose out of state business. If the states take money from the fed's then they are whores to the fed's. ie car companies and banks.

PS
Just how would you spend money to better educate kids. SC has probably spent as much money per kid on education and the return has been about Zero. What would you do, Give them a shot?

Parochial schools spend less per kid and continue to turn out better educated kids ever year. Check the SAT scores. Throw all the money you want, money is not the answer. Sorry, ignorance is not a disease you can give a shot of money and cure. Ignorance is just plain ignorance.

[klawz]

07:53 AM on 05/01/2009

Why doesn't Alaska study the volcano? BVecause it doesn't have enough money.

[RichfromMA]

03:47 PM on 04/30/2009

The pandemic outbreak is not part of and should not be part of any economic stimulus package.

Again, we must get money designated to solve a situation to that situation.

Let's pass additional funding for the possible outbreak of swine flu and protect our citizens first.

Get that stimulus money to main street and not wall street as promised. Use it to solve the mortgage crisis and watch the spending flow without giving away trillions.

Let's use our heads and follow what we said we were going to do.

Rich

[steamboat]

10:56 AM on 04/30/2009

I thought I heard Obama give the Bush Administra­tion HIGH MARKS last night for their prepardnes­s to flu epidemics.­....Jason, how come you omitted that?

[rodbaker]

05:41 AM on 04/30/2009

Ok, let's solve this petty bickering right now.

Give everybody in the country health care and let the Government run it and pay for it.

Go ahead and let the government take over the rest of the banks and financial institutio­ns. That way everybody can get home loans and car loans.

Forgive any mortgages that are in forbearanc­e

Tax the Rich until they don't have anymore money than the rest of us.

Do away with private education, make it all public. That way everybody can have equal access to a good education.

Bring all the troops home from everywhere­.

Put all the republican­s in jail and waterboard them until they confess that everything bad that happens when the Democrates are in charge is the fault of the Republican­s before them. Anything good that happens when Republican­s are running things is because of the Democrates before them.

Open all the borders and just let all the good people come and go as they chose.

Take away all the guns from those redneck, bible thumping hicks.

and crown Obama King.

[Ascoli]

07:51 AM on 04/30/2009

I think 'thou protest too much'

[thirteen13]

09:10 AM on 04/30/2009

You forgot, release all prisoners from our jails and outlaw all religions.

[WilliamP]

12:37 AM on 04/30/2009

'"We had $870 million in the committee-­reported stimulus bill for buying anti-viral­s, vaccines, planning, etc. It was dropped in Collins-Ne­lson because it was 'not stimulativ­e,'" said a Senate leadership aide. '

Is this really her reason? Let's flesh out the implicatio­ns of this argument:

Is influenza prevention spending necessary? Who cares? It isn't going to create enough jobs for it to be called "stimulati­ve." Since this is a stimulus bill, let's ignore the fact that it would likely help keep our economy stable during an outbreak because this is a stimulus plan, not a stability plan. And keeping the bill true to its name is more important than preventing an outbreak.

[DesertRat09]

12:27 AM on 04/30/2009

Now the humorous aspect here is that Barack, who despises saying anything positive about George W, actually praised the work that the George W. administra­tion did to prepare for outbreaks such as this. So, what is the argument about again??

[curocat]

02:04 AM on 04/30/2009

GW only did it after the first failure, remember when the flu hit we ran out of the anti-virus vaccines?? Remember ??? When the next flu season rolled around then we were more prepared.

[Jamchinadian]

03:06 PM on 04/30/2009

President Obama is the one keeping GW Shrub out of jail!!!

[dhtucson]

11:07 PM on 04/29/2009

Why is this an issue? The fact that the money was cut from the bill has nothing to do with our ability to provide services for an outbreak. Contrarily­, the CDC has been very prepared in the past to support these outbreaks. It was unclear what the money would be spent on which led to it being cut out of this particular bill. This is a RED HERRING. We're not even close to having a pandemic and the fact that it's getting so much coverage should be a red flag to everyone to look for the real issue going on that we're not talking about instead. Like.....t­he flyover in NYC, Napalitano redefining veterans and one issue Americans as potential terrorists­, or how about the fact that the economy dropped another 6.7% today and not one person in the press corp asked about it.

[exPatPatti]

11:45 PM on 04/29/2009

Seriously?­... some lame flyover in NYC and Napolitano­'s commentary are more important than reporting on the 152 people dead across our border due to a contagious virus and the WHO's upgrading of the pandemic warning level to it's highest level and sickness spreading throughout the world.

Yeah... good idea bucko.

[curocat]

02:08 AM on 04/30/2009

They can't help themselves­. They will reach for anything.. What can you expect, from Tucson, the same state as ASU....

[Tkevan]

08:17 AM on 04/30/2009

Knuclehead­,
THOUSANDS die every year from seasonal flu. Why would 152 raise an eyebrow? Last year, 83 children alone died in the US.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

10:03 PM on 04/29/2009

Tell me how all these disparate genetic components from all over the world end up in Mexico.

The new virus has genes from North American swine influenza, avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.

[Athirson]

08:41 PM on 04/29/2009

E. Coli conservati­sm, redux.

It is fun to watch the KKKons backpedal on their previous actions. Even Susan Collins, one of but a few RepubliKKK­ons I have an ounce of respect for, has had to do a complete 180. You'd think she criticized HeadRush or committed some other mortal sin.

[DogTown]

08:15 PM on 04/29/2009

Public safety means nothing to the GOP!