Bush wants the government to cover Viagra, but then turns around and plans to announce Cuts in Health Services on Monday??!! WTF?
Mr. Bush would cut spending for several programs that deal with epidemics, chronic diseases and obesity. His plan would also cut the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 9 percent, to $6.9 billion.
Mr. Bush requests money to expand a national stockpile of vaccines and antibiotics. But the public health emergency fund of the centers, which helps state and local agencies prepare for bioterror attacks, would be cut 12.6 percent, to $1 billion.
A Public Health Service program for "chronic disease prevention and health promotion" would be cut by 6.5 percent, to $841 million in 2006. The program finances efforts to prevent and control obesity, which federal health officials say has reached epidemic proportions.
The president's budget would also eliminate a block grant that provides $131 million for preventive health services. Under federal law, the money is used to "address urgent health problems," which vary from state to state.
The budget for training nurses, dentists and other health professionals would be cut 64 percent, to $160.5 million in 2006. The president would cut $100 million, or 33 percent, from a $301 million program that trains doctors at children's hospitals.
Mr. Bush seeks a $38 million increase in programs promoting sexual abstinence, which would bring the total to $192.5 million in 2006, an increase of more than 50 percent since 2004.
My worst fears about this election are coming true. While I knew that in order to pay for the Medicare Prescription Drug program, other areas would suffer, I never in my wildest dreams envisioned a $38 million dollar increase in funding to preach sexual abstinence. What about relying on the PARENTS to teach their kids values?? By cutting funding for programs targeted at chronic disease prevention and health promotion, obesity, and training health professionals, he's creating a doomsday scenario further down the road. I'm all for job security, but having a job managing a heart disease program, when your government is willfully doing whatever it can to make sure heart disease still exists 10 or 20 years from now in even greater numbers, is not a "feel good" moment.
