Satire explains it.....

Everyday Economics
The Federal Budget Deficit Is Back to Normal

The federal budget deficit has narrowed sharply, and is back to relatively normal levels.

With the government’s budget year having concluded at the end of September, the Congressional Budget Office now estimates that the deficit for 2014 was 2.8 percent of G.D.P., down from 4.1 percent last year. The deficit is now smaller than its average over the past 40 years of 3.1 percent.
http://nyti.ms/Zzk4Nm

Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes easily crushed Koch-supported Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during their one-and-only debate in Kentucky on Monday.

With millions of dollars in televised commercials by both candidates, the race is “one of the most expensive in the country” according to Huffington Post.

The race is important to Republicans who need to pick up six seats to capture a Senate majority in the upcoming midterm elections and McConnell “has benefited from about $20 million in advertisements from a pair of organizations set up by former aides and associates solely to re-elect him to a sixth term, as Huffington adds.

Disagreeing sharply about coal, healthcare, the minimum wage and trade, Grimes went on the offensive calling McConnell;

“Senator no-show,” “Senator gridlock” and “Senator shutdown.”

She also slammed him for the astronomical wealth he has attained since being in Washington, saying;

Reagan's AIDS Legacy / Silence equals death
Allen White
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 8, 2004

As America remembers the life of Ronald Reagan, it must never forget his shameful abdication of leadership in the fight against AIDS. History may ultimately judge his presidency by the thousands who have and will die of AIDS.

Following discovery of the first cases in 1981, it soon became clear a national health crisis was developing. But President Reagan's response was "halting and ineffective," according to his biographer Lou Cannon. Those infected initially with this mysterious disease -- all gay men -- found themselves targeted with an unprecedented level of mean-spirited hostility.

A significant source of Reagan's support came from the newly identified religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination. Falwell said "AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals." Reagan's communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is "nature's revenge on gay men."

With each passing month, death and suffering increased at a frightening rate. Scientists, researchers and health care professionals at every level expressed the need for funding. The response of the Reagan administration was indifference.

By Feb. 1, 1983, 1,025 AIDS cases were reported, and at least 394 had died in the United States. Reagan said nothing. On April 23, 1984, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced 4,177 reported cases in America and 1,807 deaths. In San Francisco, the health department reported more than 500 cases. Again, Reagan said nothing. That same year, 1984, the Democratic National Convention convened in San Francisco. Hoping to focus attention on the need for AIDS research, education and treatment, more than 100,000 sympathizers marched from the Castro to Moscone Center.

Reagan would ultimately address the issue of AIDS while president. His remarks came May 31, 1987 (near the end of his second term), at the Third International Conference on AIDS in Washington. When he spoke, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with more than 50,000 cases.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Reagan-s-AIDS-Legacy-Silence-equals-death-2751030.php

Addy said:

Reagan's AIDS Legacy / Silence equals death
Allen White
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 8, 2004

As America remembers the life of Ronald Reagan, it must never forget his shameful abdication of leadership in the fight against AIDS. History may ultimately judge his presidency by the thousands who have and will die of AIDS.

Following discovery of the first cases in 1981, it soon became clear a national health crisis was developing. But President Reagan's response was "halting and ineffective," according to his biographer Lou Cannon. Those infected initially with this mysterious disease -- all gay men -- found themselves targeted with an unprecedented level of mean-spirited hostility.

A significant source of Reagan's support came from the newly identified religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination. Falwell said "AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals." Reagan's communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is "nature's revenge on gay men."

With each passing month, death and suffering increased at a frightening rate. Scientists, researchers and health care professionals at every level expressed the need for funding. The response of the Reagan administration was indifference.

By Feb. 1, 1983, 1,025 AIDS cases were reported, and at least 394 had died in the United States. Reagan said nothing. On April 23, 1984, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced 4,177 reported cases in America and 1,807 deaths. In San Francisco, the health department reported more than 500 cases. Again, Reagan said nothing. That same year, 1984, the Democratic National Convention convened in San Francisco. Hoping to focus attention on the need for AIDS research, education and treatment, more than 100,000 sympathizers marched from the Castro to Moscone Center.

Reagan would ultimately address the issue of AIDS while president. His remarks came May 31, 1987 (near the end of his second term), at the Third International Conference on AIDS in Washington. When he spoke, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with more than 50,000 cases.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Reagan-s-AIDS-Legacy-Silence-equals-death-2751030.php

Click to expand...

It's my understanding that GWB was actually and with little or no fanfare, surprisingly effective in terms of AIDS and Africa. In order for him to've been so, he had to have the support of his own party. Alas, those days are long gone. The funny/sad thing about the Ebola issue, is that we all know damned well that there's absolutely NOTHING Obama could've done differently, that would've avoided the Fox/GOP's projectile vomitous.

The Fox/GOP's current rallying cry is to quarantine a handful of African nations. Yet we all know that IF that's what he'd led with, the Fox/GOP would've hated on him for doing that!

Thanks for pointing out the good from the Bush admin. And you're right his guys jumped on the bandwagon in a good way.
Party lines drawn early on and ongoing have really been hurtful in a bad way for President Obama.. with or without a crisis. It's sad I agree, everything he tries to do /does is just something for those afflicted with ODS to criticize.
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The story of how a conservative Republican president became a crusader against global AIDS is an unlikely one. Mr. Bush ran for the White House in 2000 with what Joshua B. Bolten, his chief of staff, calls “a Republican’s skepticism about the efficacy of foreign aid.” He talked of letting “Africa solve Africa’s problems.” But a variety of forces conspired to put the international AIDS epidemic on the new president’s agenda.

Colin L. Powell, then the new secretary of state, was deeply troubled by demographics showing that in some African nations, AIDS threatened to wipe out the entire child-bearing population — a condition that could create instability, and a climate ripe for terrorism. Just weeks into his new job, he called Tommy G. Thompson, the new administration’s health and human services secretary.

“I said, ‘Tommy, this is not just a health matter, this is a national security matter,’” Mr. Powell recalled. They vowed to work together, and the president, Mr. Powell said, “bought into it immediately.” Yet, little was done at first, infuriating advocates like Mr. Zeitz.

By 2002, though, Christian conservatives, a core component of Mr. Bush’s political base, began adopting the cause. Jesse Helms, the conservative Republican senator from North Carolina, declared himself ashamed that he had not done more. Bill Frist, a physician who was then a Republican senator from Tennessee, was badgering Mr. Bush about the epidemic. So was Bono, the rock star. Generic drugs were slashing the costs for treatment.

In the spring of that year, Mr. Bush sent Mr. Thompson and the government’s top AIDS expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, to Africa “to try to scope out anything we could do in a humanitarian way,” Dr. Fauci said.

They came back and proposed $500 million to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease. The president approved, Dr. Fauci said, but told them to think bigger.

“He wanted to do something game-changing,” Mr. Bolten said. “Something that, instead of at the margins assuaging everybody’s conscience, might actually change the trajectory of this disease which, from the reports we were getting, was headed to destroy a whole continent.”

Mr. Bolten, Dr. Fauci and a handful of others spent eight months quietly planning. Inside the White House, Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, favored the program.

But there was resistance from those who thought it “problematic to be announcing a lot of money for foreigners,” said Michael J. Gerson, Mr. Bush’s former speechwriter. Opponents waged an 11th-hour attempt to strip the announcement from the State of the Union address. Mr. Bush overruled them.

With the United States about to invade Iraq, some theorized that Mr. Bush was trying to soften the nation’s image. Not so, says Mr. Gerson, who calls the initiative “foreign policy moralism.” But he does see a link: “It fit a broader conception of his view of America’s purpose in the world, which included not just the liberation of other people, but their treatment for disease.”

The goals were ambitious: to treat 2 million people, prevent 7 million new infections and provide care for 10 million, including orphans and other children considered at risk, over five years, beginning in 2004 when the money became available.

The prevention targets will not be measured until 2010. But Dr. Mark Dybul, Mr. Bush’s global AIDS coordinator, says the program is on track to meet its goals. In addition to drugs for 1.4 million, the government says it has provided care for nearly 6.7 million people affected by the disease, including 2.7 million orphans and other children. Drugs provided to pregnant women have spared an estimated 152,000 infants from infection, the government says.

Some AIDS experts say the money could be spent more efficiently. Yet the fight is not over whether to reauthorize the program, but how. Much of the money has been channeled through American religious-based organizations, drawing criticism from people like Dr. Coutinho of Uganda, who say local control would cut costs.

Citing the current infection rate, advocates say $50 billion is needed, not $30 billion as Mr. Bush has proposed. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is also calling for $50 billion, as is Dr. Coutinho.

“Unless Pepfar is reauthorized at a much higher level,” Dr. Coutinho said, “we are going to be in the business of playing God.”

At the White House, AIDS advocacy has become a family affair. Laura Bush made her third trip to Africa last year, and the president’s daughter Jenna chronicled the life of a young H.I.V.-positive woman in a new book.

Mr. Bush announced his trip to Africa in conjunction with World AIDS Day in November, quoting from Deuteronomy: “I have set before you life and death ... Therefore, choose life.”

On that day, the North Portico of the White House was festooned with a huge red ribbon, the symbol of the fight against the epidemic. Even Mr. Zeitz took it as a promising sign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/washington/05aids.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

President's HIV/AIDS Initiatives
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/hivaids/

Democrats Demand Investigation Into Republican Budget Cuts To Ebola Preparedness
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/16/pelosi-demands-hearing-funding-levels-public-health-institutes-light-ebola-threat.html

FEMA Chief Brown: Former Head of the Arabian Horse Association Qualified to Manage Agency?
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/9/8/fema_chief_brown_former_head_of