GOP senators ask for more CDC funds after voting previously to cut them

Many lawmakers now calling for additional CDC funds to address the coronavirus outbreak voted in 2017 to repeal Obamacare, which would have cut hundreds of millions from the agency's budget to fight public health crises.


Several Republican senators facing tough reelection races are now clamoring for more federal funds to deal with the new coronavirus outbreak.

But just a few years ago, those same lawmakers voted to repeal Obamacare, which would have slashed $1 billion in funds for the CDC's Prevention and Public Health Fund, including hundreds of millions set aside "for detecting and responding to infectious diseases and other public health threats."

Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that $2.5 billion proposed by the Trump administration to deal with the coronavirus outbreak "may just be a down payment."

Earlier in the month, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) wrote a letter to congressional appropriators requesting "sufficient funding for both current and potential future efforts" to deal with outbreaks.

In response to questions about the coronavirus outbreak, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) bragged on Friday about the size of the CDC budget, saying Congress "actually increased Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health funding over the past number of years."

Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) went so far as to ask the CDC to reimburse states and cities for efforts to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Yet all four of these senators, along with most Republicans in the Senate and Congress, voted in 2017 to take $1 billion away from the CDC's Prevention and Public Health Fund when they voted to repeal Obamacare.

https://americanindependent.com/gop-senators-coronavirus-funding-cdc-obamacare-cuts-republicans/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&fbclid=IwAR1AabzU3g9M6hMI8dHn8pvUBOVb-MIZCpQ8leqzZRdWEenYHNWjptWSMAg