House Ebola Hearings | Senate Democrats ‘Avoiding Keystone, EPA War on Coal, Immigration, Obamacare, New AG Nominee Until After Election’

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

Today in Washington, D.C. - Oct 16, 2014
Although Congress is not in session and will not return until Nov. 12th after the Federal elections, today, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will convene this afternoon to hear testimony from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden and a number of witnesses on the Ebola outbreak.

 In advance of this meeting, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations said in a released statement, “Questions continue to emerge as this outbreak has continued, further heightening our concerns about the response and preparedness efforts both at home and abroad.”

The subcommittee will question and hear testimony from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, the Assistant Commissioner of Counterterrorism Policy at the Food and Drug Administration Luciana Borio, Robin Robinson a Health and Human Services director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Acting Assistant Commissioner in the Office of Field Operations at Customs and Border Protection John Wagner, and the Senior Vice President at Texas Health Resources Daniel Varga.

In previous statement this week, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) focused on the the lack of apparent preparedness and the expressed concern about the threat, “Ebola has been on the world's radar screen since March and yet the United States and the international community are still scrambling to stay ahead of and stop this outbreak. We remain gravely concerned about this ongoing threat and the committee will continue diligently investigating the response efforts and preparedness plans. .... The stakes could not be any higher, and as I have said before, we cannot afford to look back at this point in history and say we could have done more.”

In August, CDC Director Friedman also testified before a Congressional hearing on Ebola which had claimed 800 lives in West Africa. Brietbart.com reported his testimony: “We can stop Ebola. We know how to do it. It will be a long and hard fight,” and noted that the U.S. would need to deal with the disease domestically at some point. Inevitably there will be travelers, American citizens and others, who go from these three countries or from Lagos, if it doesn't get it under control, and are here with symptoms. Those symptoms might be Ebola or something else,” he added back in August. “So we’re having to deal with Ebola in the U.S. in a way we've never had to deal with it before."

Unfortunately, as this week, Ebola has claimed over 4,400 lives, largely in Africa, and has made it to the United States. In at least one intial reported case carried to Dallas Texas by Liberian national Thomas Duncan who has died. In addition, Ebola has been transmitted to at least two people and there are at present unknown potential cases due to people fleeing Africa. In addition, there are concerns over the weaponization of Ebola by terrorists and a seemingly unpreparedness in handling the situation in the United States.

Today, RealClearPolitics executive editor Tom Bevan calls out Democrats in Washington for their series of delays of unpopular policies that they’d prefer voters don’t pay attention to before Election Day.

Bevan writes, “[F]aced with a tough political map, an unpopular president, and an electorate that is exceedingly anxious and angry, the Democrats have taken this strategy [of avoiding difficult policy issues] to an almost comical extreme this year. The number of significant issues they have attempted to kick down the road and dodge until after the midterms is substantial -- and growing by the day.“The Keystone XL pipeline, having already been punted by the president in two previous elections, remains in limbo, buried deep within the bowels of the State Department.

“In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would delay issuing a regulation forcing new power plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions until after the midterm elections.

“In September, President Obama, at the behest of vulnerable Senate Democrats . . . decided to delay taking executive action on immigration until after November.

“This week we learned that Obama acquiesced to another request by Senate Democrats: to delay naming a new attorney general until after the election for fear that a ‘controversial nominee’ might harm their 2014 midterm chances.


“It was also revealed this week that the enrollment period for Obamacare this year -- when the public will be able to see how premium rates have been affected -- doesn’t begin until Nov. 15, 11 days after voters go to the polls. Last year, the enrollment period began on Oct. 1. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest assured the press political considerations had nothing to do with the date change.”He concludes, “The president is fond of another age-old cliché: ‘good policy makes good politics.’ His fellow Democrats apparently aren’t so sure that’s true this year.  We’ll see what voters think in a few short weeks.”

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said about the president’s announced delay on a potential executive action on immigration, “What’s so cynical about [this] immigration announcement is that the President isn't saying he'll follow the law — he's just saying he'll go around the law once it's too late for Americans to hold his party accountable in the November elections. This is clearly not decision-making designed around the best policy — it's Washington politics at its worst. The President is required to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not — as he has admitted--make them up as he sees fit.”

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