4 ms·

What was the motivation for the cuts? Was it merely difficult to justify spending on a 100-year event that might never come? Or was there a conflict of interest

What was the motivation for the cuts? Was it merely difficult to justify spending on a 100-year event that might never come? Or was there a conflict of interest?

loopz 6y ago
Not caring for anybody but themselves? Why would it be explained.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> 100-year event that might never come SARS-1 (2003) and MERS are recent coronaviruses, and Ebola re-occurs every other year. SARS-1 had a similar effect on Toronto hospitals as the current COVID-19 on NYC, with staff wiped out.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  Actually, if anybody knows why Ebola keeps re-occurring every 2-3 years (according to the CDC), I'd be curious to know why. You'd think a disease that fatal (over 50%) would wipe itself out. Or maybe, horrors, it's really that bad! In 2014, the US had a cluster of Ebola cases, and was totally unprepared, with one patient and 2 nurses getting infected: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nurse-who-caught-ebola-settles-suit-against-dallas-hospital-n672081 https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nurse... "[nurse] went home in the scrubs she wore while treating Duncan [for Ebola]." That transmission was via an airline passenger from Liberia.
delecti 6y ago
Cynically? The best way to show the government is useless, and thus to justify cuts, is to make the government be useless.
- sq_ 6y ago
  Case in point: the USPS. It's the Republican "starve the beast" strategy [0] (of course, not limited to the US, just commonly seen here). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast
yardie 6y ago
Tax cuts at any cost. Since they can't make small cuts to the large programs (military, SS, Medicare) they make thousands of large cuts to the not so well known programs, CDC, forestry, NEA. Then they go back to their constituents about how many millions and billions in programs they've cut.
- _-david-_ 6y ago
  >Tax cuts at any cost. The revenue brought in from taxes increased after the tax cuts. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-11/55824-CBO-MBR-FY19.pdf https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-11/55824-CBO-MBR-FY19....
  - EdwardDiego 6y ago
    Are you implying a direct causative link?
    - _-david-_ 6y ago
      >Are you implying a direct causative link No. The person I was responding to was making the claim that budget cuts were made to make tax cuts possible. I was trying to say that the tax cuts did not lower the revenue so budget cuts were not needed to justify the tax cuts.
      - BlackNitrogen 6y ago
        The per year deficit greatly increased though during that time. we reduced taxes, the economy grew a little more but the deficit really increased. the net is we borrowed from the future to make those tax cut (cause we'll have to back back the extra deficit over time).

What was the motivation for the cuts? Was it merely difficult to justify spending on a 100-year event that might never come? Or was there a conflict of interest?

loopz 6y ago

Not caring for anybody but themselves? Why would it be explained.

redis_mlc 6y ago

> 100-year event that might never come SARS-1 (2003) and MERS are recent coronaviruses, and Ebola re-occurs every other year. SARS-1 had a similar effect on Toronto hospitals as the current COVID-19 on NYC, with staff wiped out.

redis_mlc 6y ago
Actually, if anybody knows why Ebola keeps re-occurring every 2-3 years (according to the CDC), I'd be curious to know why. You'd think a disease that fatal (over 50%) would wipe itself out. Or maybe, horrors, it's really that bad! In 2014, the US had a cluster of Ebola cases, and was totally unprepared, with one patient and 2 nurses getting infected: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nurse-who-caught-ebola-settles-suit-against-dallas-hospital-n672081 https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nurse... "[nurse] went home in the scrubs she wore while treating Duncan [for Ebola]." That transmission was via an airline passenger from Liberia.

delecti 6y ago

Cynically? The best way to show the government is useless, and thus to justify cuts, is to make the government be useless.

sq_ 6y ago
Case in point: the USPS. It's the Republican "starve the beast" strategy [0] (of course, not limited to the US, just commonly seen here). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

yardie 6y ago

Tax cuts at any cost. Since they can't make small cuts to the large programs (military, SS, Medicare) they make thousands of large cuts to the not so well known programs, CDC, forestry, NEA. Then they go back to their constituents about how many millions and billions in programs they've cut.

_-david-_ 6y ago
>Tax cuts at any cost. The revenue brought in from taxes increased after the tax cuts. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-11/55824-CBO-MBR-FY19.pdf https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-11/55824-CBO-MBR-FY19....
- EdwardDiego 6y ago
  Are you implying a direct causative link?
  - _-david-_ 6y ago
    >Are you implying a direct causative link No. The person I was responding to was making the claim that budget cuts were made to make tax cuts possible. I was trying to say that the tax cuts did not lower the revenue so budget cuts were not needed to justify the tax cuts.
    - BlackNitrogen 6y ago
      The per year deficit greatly increased though during that time. we reduced taxes, the economy grew a little more but the deficit really increased. the net is we borrowed from the future to make those tax cut (cause we'll have to back back the extra deficit over time).