Bobby Jindal hits Hillary Clinton on Ebola funding

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is hitting back over remarks former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made last week suggesting that federal spending cuts have hurt the fight against the Ebola virus.

Mrs. Clinton referred to across-the-board sequester cuts enacted by Congress as a “handicap” on regulators, adding: “The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] is another example on the response to Ebola — they’re working heroically, but they don’t have the resources they used to have.”

Mr. Jindal disagreed, saying that funding has been there but that much of it has gone toward purposes other than fighting infectious diseases.

He points to the CDC’s receiving slightly less than $3 billion over the last five years in transfers from the Prevention and Public Health Fund under Obamacare, but devoting approximately $180 million of that money toward building epidemiology and laboratory capacity.

“Especially given the agency’s postwar roots as the Communicable Disease Center, one would think that ’detecting and responding to infectious diseases and other public health threats’ warrants a larger funding commitment,” he wrote in a piece for Politico.

The possible 2016 GOP presidential contender points out a community grant program that funds efforts like supporting local farmers and neighborhood grocery stores, as well as improvements to sidewalks and street lighting for walkers and bikers, has received more than $500 million over the same time period.

“Bike lanes and farmer’s markets may indeed help a community — but they would do little to combat dangerous diseases like Ebola, SARS or anthrax,” he wrote.

He said such community efforts are worthwhile, but that “when … government prioritizes funding for jungle gyms and bike paths over steps to protect our nation from possible pandemics, citizens have every right to question the decisions that got us to this point.”

“In her speech, Secretary Clinton said, ’too often our health care debates are clouded by ideology, rather than illuminated by data,’ ” Mr. Jindal wrote. “I couldn’t agree more. But in this case, the data show not that the CDC faced a lack of funding, but misplaced priorities for that funding based on choices made by the Obama administration. I urge Secretary Clinton to put her partisan politics aside, and ensure instead that the federal government focus first and foremost on our most important goal: to keep America, and Americans, safe.”