Sunday, October 19, 2014

Joe Friday and Congressman Steve Pearce

I loved Joe Friday on the old 50's TV Show 'Dragnet".  He always said, "I want just the facts ma'am....just the facts."  And so in case the pea brained republicans, like Congressman Steve Pearce, are wondering where the response capabilities to the Ebola virus is, here is a reminder of what they have done with the budget sequestration.  One item, a 98 million dollar cut in emergency response should give some clues to how things have worked out.

  1. On March 1, 2013, as required by statute, President Obama signed an order initiating sequestration. The sequestration requires CDC to cut 5 percent or more than $285 million of its fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget. CDC applied the cut evenly across all programs, projects, and activities (PPAs), which are primarily CDC national centers, offices and centers. This means every area of CDC was affected. In addition, the Prevention and Public Health Fund allocation in FY 2013 was almost $350 million below FY 2012. In total, CDC’s program level, including the Vaccines for Children mandatory program and other external sources, was almost $1 billion (or 10%) below FY 2012.
    The reductions to CDC’s funding accounts are as follows:
    •   Immunization = $100 million
    •   HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STI and TB Prevention = $62 million
    •   Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases = $13 million
    •   Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion = $195 million
    •   Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities = $7 million
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  •   Environmental Health = $17 million
  •   Injury Prevention and Control = $7 million
  •   Public Health Scientific Services = $19 million
  •   Occupational Safety and Health = $9 million
  •   Global Health = $18 million
  •   Public Health Preparedness and Response = $98 million
  •   Cross-cutting Activities and Program Support = $35 million
    IMPACTS OF FUNDING LEVELS IN FY 2013 (COMPARED TO FY 2012) INCLUDE:
    Reduced ability to ensure global disease protection:
Jeopardizes polio eradication efforts:
o Sequestration forced CDC to reduce support to purchase oral polio vaccine by over 40,000,000 doses.
o Cuts to UNICEF funding jeopardize plans for vaccination rounds later in 2013 and into 2014 to respond to ongoing outbreaks in Syria, Horn of Africa, and Cameroon along with planned aggressive campaigns during the December April low transmission season in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan unless other resources can be identified and secured.
  •   $25 million cut to global efforts to eliminate polio, prevent measles outbreaks, malaria, and pandemic flu.
  •   $13 million in cuts to our efforts to prevent and respond to outbreaks of other emerging infectious diseases, such as the MERS-Coronavirus emerging globally now.
    Reduced support for state and local public health efforts:
  •   $160 million less in funding to on-the-ground public health in the United States, a system
    already strained by state and local budget cuts.
  •   CDC's ability to support state, local, and international health departments was reduced.
  •   $33 million will be cut from state and local preparedness ability to respond to natural and man-made disasters.
    Reduced ability to prevent domestic HIV/AIDS:
$40 million reduction in HIV prevention.
o 175,000 fewer HIV tests would be conducted.
o $7 million reduction to CDC’s HIV testing activities.
Reduce ability to prevent the leading causes of illness and death:
Programs to prevent cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes are being cut by almost
$200 million due to sequestration and Prevention and Public Health Fund allocations. 

And here is a good post this morning from Bubba Munster.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is what we call connecting the dots. Good job

Anonymous said...

Amen, Anonymous.

And where is the private sector's response to Ebola? Conservatives love to say the private sector can do anything better than government, until there's an emergency and they get frightened and then they're screaming for a government response. Or until the private sector gets the economy into a disaster and is unable to bail itself out and government has to. The private sector can't even do what government does let alone do it better.

Thanks for that reference Jim to my post which is simply meant to point out that it was a private hospital in Dallas that brought us the Ebola scare. This "Presbyterian" hospital they keep talking about isn't Presbyterian anymore but is owned by a private corporation.

And it contracts out its emergency room services to another private company, which sent the Ebola victim away initially. The media is lacking in not reporting this and not looking into what the profit motive had to do with it.

It's already been revealed by NPR awhile back that hospitals are manipulating patients into being outpatients so they get a more favorable payoff from insurance companies. The source of the Ebola scare is a company in business to make money and not to serve the public.

By the way, in some localities they've had the bright idea of privatizing their fire department, and people who've forgot to pay their bills have already had these private fire departments let their homes burn to the ground because of it.

What if the Rio Grande flooded and there was no government. Who would you call? Roto Rooter perhaps?