Or more precisely Spending Cuts are put on a blind-foldeded Time Table. No wonder we can't have 'nice things' anymore.
Dem ad blames GOP for CDC budget cuts
by Cristina Marcos, thehill.com -- Oct 13, 2014
[...]
In an interview with The Huffington Post published Sunday, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said that a vaccine for Ebola could have been developed by now if not for budget cuts in recent years.
"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," Collins said.
[...]
This statement has been rated "
Mostly True," by Pundit-Fact, powered by Politi-Fact (hardly a citadel of progressive thought).
Stephanie Cutter: Ebola vaccine research was cut in half, and more cuts are coming
by Katie Sanders, politifact.com/punditfact, Tampa Bay Time -- Oct 24, 2014
[...]
But if you compare 2010 spending to 2014 spending, spending indeed dropped by more than half, falling from about $37.2 million to $17.7 million. The 2009-10 fiscal year was one of higher-than-usual spending. The year before, spending was $20.8 million.
The story for total Ebola research spending by NIH is similar, reaching a high of $59 million in 2006 before falling, peaking again in 2010 and then trailing off amid recession fallout.
No doubt, research money has not kept up with rising research costs, especially in the recent austere budget climate.
[...]
Remember that funny word, sequestration? It hasn’t been in the news much, but it’s not going away, and it has a big influence on whether the NIH keeps funding things like Ebola research at substantial levels. (See PolitiFact’s guide here.)
[...]
I remember ...
Do you? Cut your operating Budgets,
but still do the same Jobs --
and even more.
"Downsizing by attrition" can do that to an (sequestered) Agency. The Mission statement hasn't changed -- only the means to carry it out, has.
Now for a brief walk down recent Budget Cutting history ... otherwise known as Sequester-Lane.
PolitiFact's guide to sequestration
by Angie Drobnic Holan, Molly Moorhead -- Feb 22, 2013
[...]
Here’s the background: In the summer of 2011, Obama and Congress were in a high-stakes stand-off over the debt limit. House Republicans insisted on spending cuts before increasing the debt limit. This was a notable change from the past, when members of Congress from both parties would pass debt ceiling increases with relatively little fuss.
Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner tried unsuccessfully to reach a "grand bargain" to put the federal budget on more stable footing. When that failed, they arrived at the much less ambitious Budget Control Act of 2011.
That law included about $1.2 trillion in future budget cuts, but it also directed Congress to find another $1.2 trillion via a bipartisan "supercommittee." As further incentive, the law had a threat: If a supercommittee couldn’t agree on a package, or if Congress voted down the supercomittee proposal, a sequester would automatically go into effect, putting in place nearly across-the-board budget cuts, with half coming from defense.
[...]
What if it does happen?
"Across-the-board cuts" in "discretionary domestic spending" sounds pretty nebulous. But think about these federal programs and agencies: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, border security, airport security, Head Start, special education, FEMA’s disaster relief budget and NASA. Now think about them (plus many others) having billions less to perform their functions, and the picture becomes a little clearer.
[...]
When your ship of state gets put on Automatic Pilot like that --
Spending Cuts across the board -- is it any wonder what we used to call Progress, has somehow morphed into
"unaffordable luxuries."
Stuff, like finding a "mostly effective" vaccine for Ebola. That would be mostly cool, right about now.