Republican Swine

It might be true that the Republican members of congress are actively trying to bring about the apocalypse. In the same vein as Bobby Jindal's awesome rebuttal to the big speech before congress given by President Obama, when Jindal mocked a spending provision for volcano monitoring...and then the Alaskan volcano Mount Redoubt erupted six times in March. As much as the Republicans seem to dislike watching over (and out for) nature, and the damage it can do, something not so easily dismissible may have come upon us, and thanks to the right-wingers, may prove bad for many many people.

Yes as silly as it seems, as humans and masters of all we survey, there are things that nature can throw at us which we can fall victim too quite easily. Of course there is no force stronger than a Republican, so they felt it wasn't necessary to have something as goofy as government preparation for a pandemic. You know, a disease that can be deadly to humans and spreads around the world very very rapidly. What could possibly happen?

The Swine Flu.

Swine Influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. Until recently, the disease very rarely spread to humans. In late March and early April 2009, cases of human infection with swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses were reported in Mexico and then in Southern California and near San Antonio, Texas. Since then, 40 confirmed cases have been reported in the United States in California, Kansas, New York City, Ohio and Texas. Sadly there was full funding for all of this in the original stimulus bill, but it was hit hard by two Republicans.

The first was Karl Rove. He came out blasting the provisions for pandemic measures by way of the Wall Street Journal. The man behind the rise of El Presidente Bush dedicated much of his time pointing out that putting in $462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations was just a red flag that new President Obama was out of touch for what people needed. Not being killed by a flu is pretty petty after all...or maybe it's just because it tends to be the very young or the very old who die because of strong flu. Who needs them, right Karl?

The second and equally shocking is Senator Susan Collins of Maine. This is the Republican who came out and criticized the amount being spent on the CDC and the pandemic measures, even putting up a statement about it on her website (look it up, lazy).

"Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not." Collins said about the money being set aside for both the CDC and pandemic illnesses.

In fact, as a self proclaimed moderate Republican, she used this stance to in effect sell her vote on the package. She would swing it for the package if the dollars she was so against were re-done or taken out completely. Worked out well, no?

So here we are, Mexico experiencing he onslaught of the Swine Flu, and as it looks now, it's spread to the United States. While it has not become a pandemic as of yet, many, including the World Health Organization have said that it has the potential to sweep around the globe. Republicans, including Collins have claimed that the CDC and it's efforts have not been hampered by a reduction in funding. Then again this isn't a pandemic event yet, either. As the number of cases increases it could readily become exponentially more expensive to protect citizens against the ravages of this and any other diseases that spring up.

The CDC Swine Flue page