Swine Flu a Bush/Cheney Production - Part 2

OBAMA'S ATTEMPTS TO ADDRESS SWINE FLU BLOCKED BY RIGHT-WING

On February 5, Karl Rove took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to argue against President Obama's Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act because, in his view, the spending was not targeted to create or preserve jobs. In particular, Rove complained about the fact that the bill included "$900 million for pandemic flu preparations." He contended that such spending was unnecessary because the health care sector "added jobs last year."

Rep. David Obey (D-WI) included the pandemic preparation funding in the package because he believed "that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse." But Rove was not concerned with the actual substance of the funding. Rather, as Paul Krugman explained at the time, in attempting to oppose and discredit the economic recovery package, conservatives in the media and Republicans in congress aligned themselves around a strategy that amounted to "snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny." Unfortunately, this "snickering" at funding priorities had very real impacts.

Indeed, like Rove, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was apparently unwilling to be seen as endorsing such "funny" sounding priorities as flu "preparedness" in an economic recovery package. Perhaps in an attempt to prove her fiscal conservative bona fides, Collins repeatedly insisted that Obey's pandemic preparedness funding did not belong in the bill:

COLLINS: There's funding to help improve our preparedness for a pandemic flu. There is funding to help improve cyber security. What does that have to do with an economic stimulus package? [CNN, 1/31/09]

COLLINS: I think everybody in the room is concerned about a pandemic flu. But does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill? No. We should not. [MSNBC, 2/5/09]

After the funding was stripped, another moderate Republican attempting to appear tough on "unnecessary" spending in the recovery package, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), endorsed Collins' crusade against the pandemic preparedness funding on Fox News:

MS. KELLY: Okay. $780 million for pandemic flu preparedness, in or out?

SEN. SPECTER: Out. Very important projects, I took the lead along with Tom Harkin on some massive funding for pandemic flu, but it belongs in our regular appropriations bilL.

Now, in light of the current outbreak of swine flu, their attempts to placate the conservative wing of their party by standing up against extremely important funding priorities looks extremely shortsighted. Ironically, those ultra conservatives in office who led the fight against the stimulus, like Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), are seeking government assistance in addressing the swine flu outbreak.

SOURCE: THINKPROGRESS.ORG

















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Obama Wows the World

Obama Leads

The amazing characteristics of Barack Obama throughout his campaign and now into the infancy of his presidency, are his ability to be calm under pressure, to say the right thing, to LISTEN to others, and to address their concerns with honesty and directness. He demonstrated that to the American people and became our President. Yesterday he demonstrated this enormous talent and ability to communicate to the rest of the world, a world still fearful from the threats, both economic and military, of our former President who shamed us in the face of the world.

Yesterday, Barack Obama went a long way toward re-establishing the good name and reputation of the United States in the global community.

CHINA

Mr. Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, resulted in an agreement to create a new "U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue," going beyond the twice-yearly forum during the Bush administration. The effort will add security and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House said it would be led on the U.S. side by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The meeting with Mr. Hu was described as businesslike by senior White House officials, who said the main hot-button issue -- Beijing's suggestion that a new global currency replace the dollar -- didn't come up. Mr. Hu invited Mr. Obama to China, a visit the U.S. president set for the latter half of the year, and Mr. Hu indicated that he was confident he could work with Mr. Obama and looked forward to a personal friendship.

Hu said: "Since Obama took office, China-U.S. ties have got to a good start." "Good relations with the United States is not only in the interests of the two peoples, but also beneficial to peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, and the world at large."

RUSSIA

Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev met in London ahead of Thursday's G-20 summit and later released a statement. The statement said the two leaders agreed that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms -- which expires in December -- "has completely fulfilled its intended purpose and that the maximum levels for strategic offensive arms recorded in the treaty were reached long ago."

"They have therefore decided to move further along the path of reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms in accordance with U.S. and Russian obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," the joint statement said.

Negotiators from both countries will soon begin talks "to work out a new, comprehensive, legally binding agreement on reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms to replace the START Treaty," the statement said.

Earlier, two senior Obama administration officials said another goal of the president's meeting with Medvedev was to set a date for a U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow, Russia, this summer. The joint statement said negotiators from both countries would report their progress on working out the new nuclear arsenal reduction agreement by July.

* Medvedev: I'll work with Obama to improve our relations

"The new agreement will mutually enhance the security of the parties and predictability and stability in strategic offensive forces, and will include effective verification measures drawn from the experience of the parties in implementing the START Treaty," the statement said.

WORLD REACTION

As Barack Obama's much-crticized economic moves begin to take effect, stronger-than-expected U.S. economic figures boosted confidence the world's largest economy is on the mend. Huge gains in Asia and a strong open in Europe followed an overnight surge on Wall Street and extended last month's rebound in world equity markets amid tentative signs of stabilization in the hard-hit global economy and banking industry. It came as Group of 20 leaders met in London for a summit that aims to hammer out policies to combat the economic slump and reform the global financial system.

Nearly every sector in Asia charged higher, with carmakers like Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) rallying on U.S. auto figures that were less dismal than feared. Exporters such as Sony Corp. (SNE) were lifted by the weakening yen.
Investors were encouraged after U.S. car sales jumped by nearly 25 percent last month from February, beating the typical rise and underpinning hopes of a turnaround in the American auto market - critical for Asia's giant auto companies.

The jobs market remains poor and real estate values remain low, however. Obama remains confident that as his measures take effect, the jobs market will improve and real estate values will stabilize.

In summary, Barack Obama is succeeding wildly in re-establishing the reputation of the United States as a world leader. Good job, Mr. President!



















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All Rights Reserved