Is it mandatory for Republicans to be disastrously and determinedly shortsighted and ignorant?

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

So, ladies and gentlemen. The swine flu cometh. And it sure doesn't help for us not to have a CDC director, what in the world is Congress waiting on? Oh, that's right, the Republicans don't want to confirm Kathleen Sibelius because she is pro-abortion. Why thanks a lot, assholes. But well, surely we are up-to date on Pandemic preparedness right? I mean, we are the richest country in the world...

You know what I'm gonna say, right?

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.

Here is Republican Senator Susan Collinsfrom Daily Kos

Meantime the Obsidian Wingslinks to another quotation of Senator Susan Collins, in which she wondered

COLLINS: There is funding to help improve our preparedness for a pandemic flu. There is funding to help improve cyber-security. What does that have to do with an economic stimulus package?

And not only is she boasting about killing it on her website, her idea of using her clout as Ranking Member of the Homeland Security committee is...to put out a press release touting her accumulation of money for Maine's homeland security, money which includes funds for pandemic preparedness. And that's it.




This BS of course, comes right after fellow Republican idjit Bobby Jindal questioned the efficacy of funds set aside for volcano monitoring, only to have the Mount Redoubt volcano erupt in Alaska one month later

And these dumbbells were actually voted into office? Anyone surprised at the state of the country now?


EDIT: Oh yes, and one more thing. Remember Governor Perry of Texas who wants to secede form the United States?Well, now that pandemic-potential flu is nicking at his state's heels, the federal government's money, made up of all those onerous taxes, is astonishingly attractive all of a sudden. If it wasn't for the fact that people tend to suffer and die as a result of these lunkheaded, selfish polices, I would be very amused.


PPS: Here is a list of posts on Daily Kos on how the feds have been preparing for possible pandemics:THE ACLU, Pandemics and You, Flu and You Part One Two, Three and Four

Comments

[saltypepper.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me of Susan Collins. I could remember everything except her name.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

no prob.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Collins is a Senator. And she's been more sensible than this in the past, though I've never thought she was near Snowe's caliber in "not particularly evil for a Republican."

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

thanks for the clarification! And I really wish that the Republicans had not painted themselves into such a corner that being intentionally stupid is their own means of getting their base. Cause this is BS.

[fa-ikaika.livejournal.com]

Now she has issued a statement saying that any statements that she opposed funding to prevent flu pandemics was "untrue" and "politically motivated". How is anyone going to believe her? Oh wait, they don't have to.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* Does she get the concept of videos?

[claws-n-stripes.livejournal.com]

I don't know how Barack Obama does it. How does he keep from losing his shit in public?

This is why I could never be President. I would take at least five minutes out of every day to call someone an asshole and tell them to shut the goddamn hell up-- on television. I mean I would specifically call press conferences for this. I would have a daily State of the Asshole Address or something.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

State of the Asshole Address


*dissolves into gigglefit*