Update x3: With Karl Rove WSJ quote. Quote from Senator Collins’ blog. Kudos to Senator Collins.
We needed sixty votes for the stimulus bill and because the Republicans were not acting in a bipartisan fashion we had to deal with three moderate Republican Senators. One of the things that was stripped out of the House stimulus package was pandemic flu protection. The reason why they opposed this was because this was not “economic stimulus”. The problem is that if you need to aggressively quarantine a pandemic — which might now happen with the Swine Flu — a fragile economy becomes even more so, particularly with people losing their health care coverage. Here’s Senator Susan Collins on this in February.
Senator Collins bragged on her ability to cut this from the stimulus in her blog. Cutting flu pandemic protection is the warp and woof of a “bipartisan bill”.
The target grew out of discussions among a group of moderate Republicans, led by Sen. Collins, aimed at reining in costs and better targeting federal funds toward job creation. The effort amounts to “rebuilding” the Obama package, according to an individual familiar with the talks. The package would include tax cuts and investments intended to create jobs, such as infrastructure projects, but it would step back from spending projects that don’t immediately lift the sagging U.S. economy.
After meeting with Mr. Obama, Sen. Collins expressed concern about a number of spending provisions, including $780 million for pandemic-flu preparedness. “I have no doubt that the president is willing to negotiate in good faith, that he wants to have a bipartisan bill,” Sen. Collins said.
Now secessionist Governor Rick Perry wants the socialist Federal government, taxing already stretched resources:
Austin — Gov. Rick Perry today in a precautionary measure requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide 37,430 courses of antiviral medications from the Strategic National Stockpile to Texas to prevent the spread of swine flu. Currently, three cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Texas.
Karl Rove said the folowing in the WSJ on February 5, 2009.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama attacked “trickle down economics” as “bankrupt” and an “old, discredited” philosophy that “didn’t work.” He was wrong. Even worse, though, is that he and congressional Democrats are embracing a Democratic version of trickle-down economics that won’t work.
It’s embodied in the House-passed “stimulus” bill, H.R. 1, whose deeply flawed assumption is that spending $1 trillion to grow government will trickle down to help people who lost jobs. The Democrats’ spending is horribly mismatched with industries that have suffered job loss.
Since December 2007, Americans lost 791,000 jobs in manufacturing, 681,000 jobs in professional and business services, 632,000 jobs in construction, 522,000 jobs in retail, 167,000 jobs in hospitality, and 576,000 jobs in the rest of the service industry. It would be logical for policy makers to focus on job creation in these sectors.
Instead, Democrats want to spend $88 billion to increase the federal share of Medicaid. What American will be hired by a small business, factory, retail shop, hotel, restaurant or service company because of this spending? The answer is very few.
In H.R. 1, there’s $41 billion set aside for school districts, $1.5 billion for university research grants, $2 billion for Energy Department labs, and $3 billion for the National Science Foundation. Yet education is one of the few sectors that added jobs last year.
There’s also $4 billion for health programs like obesity control and smoking cessation, $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations. Health care also added jobs last year.
It is not surprising that the stimulus package is laden with new spending programs. Congressional appropriators, not job creators, wrote H.R. 1. Much of it is spending Democrats couldn’t get approved in the normal course of affairs. And it should not shock Americans that Democratic appropriators would funnel tax dollars to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, unions and other liberal special interests. Putting budgets of political allies above the budgets of struggling families is apparently the new Democratic trickle-down economics.
Since I gave her criticism, I want to give Senator Collins some well-deserved kudos. Given the Swine Flu emergency it is vital that we have an HHS head now. Some Republicans are blocking Governor Sabelius’ nomination. Senator Collins today called for an expedited confirmation. Kudos.
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“Are you honestly trying to assert, @rblinne, that this flu pandemic is the fault of the Republicans?”
Did I say that? It was deleted from the Senate version because of a request by Senate Republicans, specifically Senator Collins. Kyle, you are confusing the House and Senate version. The House version had it in there, just as the House version also had the retroactive TARP bonus clawbacks. (The Treasury department had the retroactive part taken out but not the clawback itself, again at Republican request.)
The House version is what non-bipartisan looks like. The Senate tried a different route. The flu provisions were in the Senate bill until they were removed in order to satisfy the Republican moderates. What did compromising and thus making the bill worse get the President? Nothing. Now you know why the President is going down the reconciliation path for health care. Peoples lives are too important to get obstructed again by Republicans.
@karoli You do remember that the Democrats controlled the past two budgets, right?
@karoli
You and @rblinne are both confusing issues. This WASN’T a healthcare/emergency bill. This was a “stimulus” bill–that got little to no debate. The point is that these were not stimulating projects, these were pet projects that we definitely could not afford during a recession.
Every one of those earmarks could have made their way into a budget if the Democrats who controlled Congress in 2007 and 2008, but they didn’t because it was not important to them.
I, frankly, am angered by this “Gotcha” approach. Are you honestly trying to assert, @rblinne, that this flu pandemic is the fault of the Republicans? I did not see any Democrats arguing hard for this, I did not see the Democrats refusing to drop the earmark from the stimulus, and I *definitely* didn’t see the Republican allowed in any of the committees which wrote the bill.
Let’s face it, the Democrats can do anything they want right now–this wasn’t on their list of priorities. And I don’t blame them for dropping this measure, they couldn’t have possibly know this swine flu was on the horizon. And let’s not get carried away, this could very well fizzle out like the bird flu scare.
This is precisely the result of loading the phrase “government spending” with only negative connotations. Whether or not pandemic spending should be considered economic stimulus or budget item is a relatively minor point.
Karoli, I updated the post to include the Karl Rove quote to which your alluded. Thanks.
Mike,
To say the swine flu is no big deal because Napolitano won’t close borders is one of the biggest leaps in logic I’ve ever read.
See, closing the borders won’t make any difference because the horse is already out of the barn and on both coasts. It’s a little like building a dam after the river dries up.
Of course, folks who want the border closed and want to see this blamed on those ‘dirty mexican immigrants’ who cross the border ignore the fact that it was likely brought back by swaggering young college students on their swingin’ spring break down on Mexican beaches. It’s just easier to blame the dudes who pick your produce than it is to deal with the fact that prevention actually matters.
Karl Rove argued long and hard in the WSJ against including it. The logic went like this: Because the health care sector was one of the few that added jobs last year, no investment should be made in it. Susan Collins took the ball and ran with that, succeeding in having it removed from the stimulus bill.
To say that it should have been included in the budget ignores the fact that the budget negotiated this year doesn’t take effect until 2010. The point of the stimulus bill was to immediately stimulate the economy, not wait 18 months to fund the next round.
Did you know that Democrats turned around with $900 million and gave it to the terrorist group Hamas in Palestine? Not only that, after Hillary Clinton claimed there was no possible way the money would end up in Hamas’ terrorist hands, Obama is now requesting a new law so that the money CAN go directly to the Hamas terrorist government…talk about swine flu?
Oh by the way, Democrat Janet Napolitano (J-N0) says there is no need to close the borders – the swine flu is no big deal and not a threat of any kind – so apparently the Republicans saved Americans nearly $900M dollars, but then Dems gave it to their terrorist friends in Palestine…shit happens
(Google it, it’s all true)
If this $850 million was so important, it should have been in the budget, not in this so called “stimulus” bill. Keep in mind that this would have not even had a bit of impact until late in 2010, so it is not relevant to the swine flu.
You are making an alarmist point that has no bearing on the current swine flu scenario. If that $850 million in pandemic flu protection is high on our list of national priorities, I can easily find tens of billions of dollars in the budget that can be pulled so that we can afford this protection.
The only way this got pulled from the “stimulus” package is if Democrats wanted it to. They hold complete power. Democrats obviously thought this was of a very low priority and they were willing to give it up. To act like the wholesome Democrats were victimized by the evil, flu-loving Republicans is absurd.
What a bunch of crap. The gov is backward again. No insurance then no protection either. Maybe they feel that we need to thin out the population. Keep up the good work information is key to action.