If you thought the Americans for Responsible Solutions “stalker” ad or the Wendy Davis wheelchair spot were tough, how about an ad accusing the Republican Party of helping the spread of Ebola via their cuts to the Center for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health and other government healthcare organizations?

However, it’s not just a Democrat-friendly PAC making this claim, but also the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, in an interview with the Huffington Post:

“NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It’s not like we suddenly woke up and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here,'” Collins told The Huffington Post on Friday. “Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.”

It’s not just the production of a vaccine that has been hampered by money shortfalls. Collins also said that some therapeutics to fight Ebola “were on a slower track than would’ve been ideal, or that would have happened if we had been on a stable research support trajectory.”

“We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference,” he said.

So, should Republicans take some responsibility for their love of budget cuts, usually symbolized in speeches by some seemingly-ridiculous research study about mice or something, but that also attacks lifesaving work by the NIH, CDC and others?

This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2014.

The editor of the Tucson Weekly. I have no idea how I got here.

17 replies on “Did Republican Budget Cuts Hurt the Fight Against Ebola?”

  1. What next? They stole your lunch money?

    Are democrats accountable for anything?

    Certainly not results. After all this whining I am ready for trickle down economics. It works better than trickle up ebola.

  4. This ad is fear mongering in its lowest form. The Democrats must really believe that their supporters are brain-dead idiots to feed them this load of crap and expect them to swallow it.

  6. When the world’s leading research and development institution, the NIH, has a FLAT BUDGET for 10 YEARS, many things have to be put on a slower financial track. IF the NIH’s crystal ball had been working 10 years ago & could have predicted that Ebola would have an unprecedented outbreak on the African continent, they would have undoubtedly rearranged their priorities. I’d love to know the citations for the financial info & timing of the previously noted study on a “Lesbian” issue. If all else fails lay down a smoke screen of unpopular issues to prevent real, bottom line scrutiny! Bottom line? You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, & the NIH has been treated by a Republican Congress like the red-headed step children at the family reunion for 10 years!! It was welcomed under Bush & expanded under Obama because of the rabid hatred for his administration & anything funded that might help the whole world!

  8. The reference to education wasting the money and asking for more is just unbelievable. The voters wanted money to go to education and the legislature used it otherwise to balance the budget. I am surprised these people aren’t in jail. Education needs money. We have an extreme shortage of teachers because they are paid so little. Go into the schools and see if you think money is being wasted. It never ceases to amaze me how little know about education and what is going on. Back to the original issue…… Yes there is no way the NIH could possibly predict what needed the money the most. THey do the best they can.

  9. With all of the wasteful spending going on in DC, for this author to even intimate that one party is guiltier than the other, is tantamount to Obama telling us that “you can keep your doctor” or “not even a smidgen of corruption”! If the media, like this pathetic excuse for a reporter, would start being fair and honest, maybe then, we could start seeing DC getting it’s act together.

  10. NO! it (Ebola/Obola) was planned by man (government) for population control world wide and here in the states. Planned Marshal Law??

  11. Budget cuts have consequences. While they may not have specifically made any difference with Ebola, cutting spending at the CDC has certainly cut into our ability to respond to disease outbreaks.

  13. And yet those who keep blowing tax dollars (and the idiots that keep giving them more with NO oversight) for useless studies, blame the Republicans? Please tell me that that those pointing the finger are not blind? Who are they going to blame when the coffers are empty?

  15. Lingo Head. Bite me? Really? What good would that do you? Every female in my family has suffered for years with hot flashes, and not a one of them thought of hoping the government would solve that problem.

    I think you would be better off getting cozy with the drug makers…you know…the ones that the government regulates and then keeps drugs off the market…

    When you place unrealistic expectations on the government, you get a bureaucratic nightmare, that truth be told…has solved very little.

    Very similar to what has happened to public education.

    Today the school celebrates mental health.
    Tomorrow is self esteem day.

    It’s what the loudest demanded.

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