{"id":840,"date":"2014-10-17T09:17:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jparnell.com\/blog\/?p=840"},"modified":"2014-10-17T09:17:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:17:19","slug":"ebola-and-the-cdc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/?p=840","title":{"rendered":"Ebola and the CDC"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of talk about the Center for Disease Control\u2019s (CDC) role in the ebola scare. Some of it is accurate, but some is completely misdirected.<\/p>\n

First things first\u2026CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden should be fired. The CDC is, by definition, a crisis management organization. His job is to ensure that clear, consistent responses are in place when there is a direct threat to the health of Americans. He has been slow to react, evasive, and inconsistent. But the problem goes much deeper than Frieden.<\/p>\n

A recent story in the National Review<\/em> (www.nationalreview.com\/article\/390254\/cdcs-laughable-pet-projects-brendan-bordelon<\/a>) shed light on budget realities in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the CDC. The NIH\u2019s inflation-adjusted budget more than doubled between 1996 and 2005, but many of its expenditures were less than essential. For example, the NIH spent $1.7 million on a Hollywood liaison to ensure the accuracy of medical portrayals on TV shows, over $5 million for a gay-porn website to provide HIV information, and $1 million on a study of sexual proclivities of fruit flies. The CDC recently spent $110 million on its new headquarters, including $10 million in furniture alone.<\/p>\n

Republicans have rushed to criticize the President for proposing cuts in the CDC budget. This is true, but not relevant. The problem is not necessarily the size of the budget, but how it is being allocated. Precisely how much money does the CDC need to fulfill its mission? If a higher CDC budget could prevent the spread of ebola, then more spending on anti-poverty, education, and fill-in-the-blank<\/em> could have the same positive effects. History has shown us that more government spending is rarely the best way to solve a problem, but Democrats\u2014and in this instance Republicans\u2014continue to tell us otherwise.<\/p>\n

Leftists often criticize the private sector and those who claim \u201cgovernment should be run like a business.\u201d In the private sector, it is assumed that failed organizations were not run properly in the first place. They are either directed to change course\u2014new leaders, new strategies, new structures, new ideas\u2014or they go under. They only get additional resources if investors can be convinced that doing so would generate a profit. However, failed government entities like the CDC are often excused because of \u201ctight budgets.\u201d Bang-for-the-buck is rarely discussed. This type of thinking explains the current $18 trillion national debt.<\/p>\n

The CDC is relevant and should not be dissolved, but it should\u2014like all other government organizations\u2014be run both effectively (doing the right things) and efficiently (getting the most out of limited resources). It has failed in both regards and the answer begins with new leadership.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t run government like a business, then how do you run it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of talk about the Center for Disease Control\u2019s (CDC) role in the ebola scare. Some of it is accurate, but some is completely misdirected. First things first\u2026CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden should be fired. The CDC is, by definition, a crisis management organization. His job is to ensure that clear, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}