We pointed this out yesterday after we noticed Paul Begala begin the talking point. But we ran out of time to write about it. Thankfully Eric Erickson expands on the nonsensical narrative…
@PaulBegala Dear Paul, how much did President Obama request for the NIH in his 2015 fiscal year budget proposal? Thought so, take a seat.
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) October 13, 2014
[…] To this end, the Administration’s FY 2015 budget request for the NIH is $30.362 billion, $211 million, or 0.7 percent, above the FY 2014 level. [NIH Testimony to appropriations]
Erickson uses the CDC 2014 budget appropriations to drive home the same point.
Erickson […] The latest Democratic attack is pretty straightforward in its insanity. Because the GOP won’t let the Democrats spend more money, people are getting Ebola. The Democrats would have you believe that the very same government that could not build an Obamacare website with hundreds of millions of dollars could somehow cure Ebola yesterday with more money.
There is just one problem: facts.
According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, in January the CDC won in the budget deal.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will see an 8.2 percent budget increase for fiscal 2014, thanks to a $1.1 trillion spending bill announced by Congress Jan. 13.
But not just that. There was also this nugget of news:
This influx of cash will raise the CDC budget to $6.9 billion, which is $567 million more than it received in 2013. This is more than the agency anticipated, because the president’s fiscal year 2014 budget request for it was just $6.6 billion — a decrease of $270 million from fiscal 2012.
Yes, you read that right. Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to give the CDC more money that President Obama requested. And what did the CDC intend to do with all that money. Cure Ebola?
Well, umm . . . .
The CDC listed some of its top spending priorities in its fiscal 2014 budget request. It wants to boost spending for vaccines for children by $287 million and increase funds by $53 million for its “World Trade Center Health Program.” It requested a $40 million increase for AMD, $22 million more for Health Statistics, $20 million more for its National Violent Death Reporting System, almost $17 million more for Food Safety and an additional $15 million for polio eradication.
Okay then.
(link)