Well fellow fiscal conservatives, it’s our fault.
That’s the latest spin on this manufactured Swine Flu “crisis”. Nichols hits all the bases in a brilliant piece of political propaganda. Blaming the opposing party? Check. Ignoring the fact that there is functionally no difference between budgeting the money in the already bloated “stimulus” bill and passing an emergency appropriation? Check. Ignoring the fact that Chuck Schumer (Democrat) removed the funding in question from the bill? Check. Positing an apocalyptic scenario of martial law? Check.
I’ll be blunt. Nichols is engaging in pure and unadulterated fear-mongering when he suggests that Swine Flu, which has thus far afflicted only very mild symptoms on a couple dozen Americans, is a catastrophic risk. Sure, it might be. But tuberculosis might be a catastrophic risk too. There is not so much as a single shred of evidence to suggest that, whatever happens, it could have been prevented had there been extra funding in the stimulus bill for “pandemic preparedness”. Nichols’ remarks are classic political grandstanding and lack any substantive support for the premise that anything in this current scenario would have been helped by having greater funding.
Of course, a politician these days would be remiss if he failed to take the opportunity to use an unavoidable natural disaster as a propaganda piece. I mean, they can’t just go around basing their campaigns on substance and appeal to intellectual positions. That’s just crazy talk.
