Obama asking Congress for emergency funding to combat Zika

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is asking Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to help fight the Zika virus. In an announcement Monday, the White House said the money would be used to expand mosquito control programs, speed development of a vaccine, develop diagnostic tests and improve support for low-income pregnant women.

Zika virus disease is mainly spread by mosquitoes. Most people who catch it experience mild or no symptoms. But mounting evidence from Brazil suggests that infection in pregnant women is linked to abnormally small heads in their babies — a birth defect called microcephaly.

"What we now know is that there appears to be some significant risk for pregnant women and women who are thinking about having a baby," Obama said in an interview aired Monday on "CBS This Morning."

The White House said that as spring and summer approach, the U.S. must prepare to quickly address local transmission with the continental U.S. Obama added, however, that "there shouldn't be a panic on this."

Two health care experts will answer reporters' questions Monday at the regular White House press briefing: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The administration's request to Congress is separate from the budget for the next fiscal year that Obama will submit to Congress on Tuesday. The administration seeks the Zika money much more quickly than the regular budget process would allow.

On Tuesday, administration officials are slated to brief Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) and other congressional leaders on the administration's Zika prevention and response plan, McConnell's office said. The lawmakers also expect to hear more about the new funding request and the administration's other spending priorities "given limited federal resources," according to a statement from McConnell spokesman Don Stewart.

The Pan American Health Organization reports 26 countries and territories in the Americas with local Zika transmission. To date, there has not been transmission of the Zika virus by mosquitoes within the U.S., but some Americans have returned to the U.S. with Zika infections from affected countries in South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands.

Most of the money would be allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services to improve laboratory capacity, launch educational programs and establish rapid response teams. About $250 million of assistance would be directed specifically to Puerto Rico though extra Medicaid funding. The island is in the midst of a fiscal crisis. And $200 million would go toward research and commercialization of new vaccines and diagnostic tests.

The remainder, about $335 million would go to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The money would help affected countries in South America, Central America and the Caribbean provide training to health care workers, stimulate private sector research and help pregnant women gain access to repellant to protect against mosquitoes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 50 laboratory-confirmed cases among U.S. travelers from December 2015- February 5, 2016, the White House said. So far, the only recent case that has been transmitted within the U.S. is believed to have occurred in Texas through sex.

Zika usually is transmitted through bites from infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are common in Florida, along the Gulf Coast and states that border Mexico.

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Original Quill wrote:If it benefits the people, the Republican Congress will not support it.  For Republicans, obfuscation has become a platform.  

And further anything that benefits the people--healthcare, infrastructure, gun safety, minority and women's rights, etc.--Republicans are against it.  If they care to offer a reason at all for their platform of inhumanity, it is that any assistance for the people will make the population lazy and slovenly.

Now WAR...that's their love.  Give 'em a war anytime and they will go into a feeding frenzy.

Didge wrote:

Original Quill wrote:If it benefits the people, the Republican Congress will not support it.  For Republicans, obfuscation has become a platform.  

And further anything that benefits the people--healthcare, infrastructure, gun safety, minority and women's rights, etc.--Republicans are against it.  If they care to offer a reason at all for their platform of inhumanity, it is that any assistance for the people will make the population lazy and slovenly.

Now WAR...that's their love.  Give 'em a war anytime and they will go into a feeding frenzy.

Oh do change the record you boringly inane twat

So what happen if they do vote to approve the funds?

Make you look even more of an idiot?

Original Quill wrote:

Didge wrote:



Oh do change the record you boringly inane twat

So what happen if they do vote to approve the funds?

Make you look even more of an idiot?

If they do vote the funds, it will represent a massive shift in policy.  

Remember, this is the Congress that refused to vote for aid funds to the northeast in the wake of hurricane Sandy, all because that part of the country is too liberal for the Republicans.  This is also the Congress that refused to sign off on a war bill against ISIS, all because it would permit a black president some heroic moments.

Didge wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

If they do vote the funds, it will represent a massive shift in policy.  

Remember, this is the Congress that refused to vote for aid funds to the northeast in the wake of hurricane Sandy, all because that part of the country is too liberal for the Republicans.  This is also the Congress that refused to sign off on a war bill against ISIS, all because it would permit a black president some heroic moments.

Still boring, change the record

Original Quill wrote:

Didge wrote:


Still boring, change the record

If you don't like someone's view, didge, don't comment...or comment adversely.  The only reason for the above post at all is to be abusive.  That's the one element we could do without in a discussion site.

Didge wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

If you don't like someone's view, didge, don't comment...or comment adversely.  The only reason for the above post at all is to be abusive.  That's the one element we could do without in a discussion site.

So trying to censur people not to comment if their views differ, well you can simple get stuffed

Your views on Republicans are inanely boring and show a lack of working together with people no matter their views, which is why the US can never get anything done

As to abusive, if you do not like it tough shit

Original Quill wrote:

Didge wrote:

So trying to censur people not to comment if their views differ, well you can simple get stuffed

Your views on Republicans are inanely boring and show a lack of working together with people no matter their views, which is why the US can never get anything done

As to abusive, if you do not like it tough shit

Most LW people I talk to find my views on Republicans/Democrats refreshing and even exciting.  The average sheep tend to buy the argument that they all do it...ho-hum.  I take a stand and say that not all politicians are the same; the Democrats, for example, are not just a different brand, but a different breed.  Republicans represent special interests, while Democrats represent the general interest.

Republican non-cooperation stems from the anti-people perspective of conservatives.  Conservatism is built upon selfish interests, as derived from Adam Smith's economics...it is inner-directed, and does not care about the welfare of people.  A conservative reasons, if we don't care about people, why pass legislation that benefits people?  This, plus the racist premise of the McConnell-Boehner doctrine, has resulted in a Congress that collects a paycheck, but does nothing to earn it.

As for you brown shirt views on abusiveness, all I need do is frame that portrait.