The GOP, specifically Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, insisted that nearly $900 million in funding for national pandemic preparation be stripped from President Obama's stimulus package before she would vote for it.
Collins wasn't the only Republican who thought preparing for a national flu pandemic was a bad idea, according to the Raw Story political Web site. Karl Rove, in a February article in the Wall Street Journal, mocked the proposal as "reckless spending." We won't go into the question of how a higher-up in the Bush administration can criticize someone else for "reckless spending" without having a laughing fit, but another interesting sidelight to this issue is that the awful, awful Obama proposal for pandemic preparation was actually just the final "installment" in a $7.1 billion program launched by George W. Bush.
And keep in mind that the current swine flu outbreak is taking place at a time when the United States doesn't have a Secretary of Health and Human Services because the GOP is blocking the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius due to her support for women's reproductive rights. That's right, folks as always, conservative Republicans are out there, looking out for you and your family and your health.