The Obama administration has chosen some of the most painful cuts possible to pay for anti-Zika efforts, including AIDS research, home heating assistance used by the vulnerable elderly and funds to fight drug addiction.
The administration said it made “difficult” decisions” based on “emergency needs,” though Republicans say there is more than enough money in the budget for the Health and Human Services Department to cover all of its functions and still fund Zika vaccine trials.
With the number of mosquito-borne cases in the U.S. reaching 30 on Monday, the amount of money dedicated to Zika — and the sources of that money — are quickly becoming political issues.
Democrats insist Republicans will be blamed for shortchanging anti-Zika efforts, even as HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell siphoned $81 million from the National Institutes of Health and other department initiatives to bolster Zika vaccine trials.
In a statement, HHS itself said $34 million in NIH money was “cut directly” from programs to fight those diseases, while the remaining $47 million would otherwise “go to states to treat people with HIV/AIDS, fight substance abuse and to help low-income families heat their homes in the winter.”
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I hope some of this money will be used to help the babies that may be born with birth defects from the Zika virus.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican party, those who openly reject any scientific data placed in front of them.
ReplyDeleteThey should have spent their money more wisely. These projects waste more money than they use for developing results. They are just like all these programs want something for nothing and just be wasteful. Look at the FDA the biggest cesspool of waste.
ReplyDeleteDumbocrats just think there is an endless supply of money. How much zika research could have been funded with the ransom money paid to Iran?
ReplyDeleteI believe Zika is fake
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBut Ogolfer's greens fees, Moochie's vacations, sending their daughter and security detail to twerk and smoke weed are sacred expenses and can't be reduced.