From the office of Congressman Andy Harris:
WASHINGTON, DC — Yesterday, Congressman Andy Harris, M.D., confronted Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about misleading statements by the White House regarding the impact on vaccines for children of sequestration.
During questioning, Congressman Harris asked Director Frieden whether they had been consulted about the state by state figures released by the White House recently about the effects of the sequester – specifically vaccines for children in Maryland. The White House’s figures claim roughly 2,050 fewer children will be vaccinated at a cost of $140,000 because of the sequester. Dr. Friedman said he did not know if the CDC had been contacted or contributed to these figures.
Congressman Harris proceeded to ask about the President’s Fiscal Year 2013 decreased budget request for the program versus the sequester and how both affect the Section 317 Immunization Program. President Obama’s prospective FY 2013 budget would have cut roughly $58 million from the program while the sequester cut around $30 million. Despite President Obama’s budget cutting nearly twice as much as the sequester, Dr. Friedman testified that the CDC would be able to maintain vaccination levels under the President’s budget. He would not comment whether the CDC could maintain current vaccination levels under sequestration even though the amount being cut is less.
The interaction took place during an oversight hearing for the Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies that looked into funding for various organizations that do medical research.
Video of the exchange is available here.
Wow, the stock market is really loving sequestration. Multiple days of new highs. Have executive branch departments been told to make sequestration as painful to private citizens as possible? You bet they have.
See folks, if you don’t mind your political masters then you will incur their wrath. And you thought the government was of the people, by the people and for the people? Perhaps when Abe was President but not today. Abe freed the black slaves but today we just make more slaves of all colors.
The stock market lives on the fixed low interest rates and free money of quantitative easing. Stop printing the greenbacks to buy bonds and allow interest rates to rise and the market will crash.
Sequestration is a fly on a dogs’s behind compared to the real problems.
This is coming from someone who has received notice of layoff, not just a furlough.
The day is coming when the money will no longer flow and the bills will have to be paid with blood. God help the federal workers, welfare collectors, and social security beneficiaries when that day comes.
and I’ll add
Harris is full of self serving BS just like any politician with a D or R behind their name.
Andy did you get your health beneifts in time? Wah wah wah wah
Harford legislators seem to be very good at “confronting” public officials
While I agree with your assessment of the economy mid-term and with your evaluation of most politicans of both parties, let’s not accuse Andy Harris of something that is patently not true. According to his office he has never been covered by the Cadillac medical insurance available to all members of the House and the Senate. There is enough true stuff to bring up – much more than enough – so let’s not act like the Lib/Dems and make stuff up. Andy Harris was the best choice on the ballot at election time. So he got elected. We need better choices.