The first domino has fallen. An article by ABC News states that the first Zika virus outbreak by mosquito in the United States occurred in Florida today. Supposedly, the mosquito bites occurred in a one mile area of north Miami. There are four people confirmed to have contracted the virus, and health officials expect there will be a significant increase to that number. This could have been prevented from happening.
Four suspicious #Zika cases in FL, one in Utah. Officials investigate whether virus is spreading in U.S.: https://t.co/9bcW6YwZh7
— Science News (@ScienceNews) July 29, 2016
Essential Zika Virus Bill Was Blocked
Just weeks before this incident a proposed Zika bill was blocked by Senate Democrats. This bill would have provided a little over 1 billion dollars to help fight the Zika virus. The Senators claimed that the Republican party placed outrageous provisions in the bill. This made the bill effectively un-passable. This type of idiocy has been common over the last year regarding the Zika Virus.
Since February of this year Obama and the Democratic Party has been pushing for a 1.9 billion dollars in emergency financing to combat Zika. This plan has repeatedly been shot down by Republicans who seem to be unwilling to help stop the spread of Zika to the United States.
The contents of the provisions that Republicans tried to sneak in the bill are witless to say the least. The main provisions would have made it harder for women to obtain contraception, as well as weaken the government’s pesticide restrictions. With how erroneous these provisions are, it is not difficult to see why this bill was not passed.
Four cases of Zika in Florida signal a new stage of the epidemic https://t.co/4Odt2wIGD5 pic.twitter.com/6TpEbiOwjs
— NYT Health (@NYTHealth) July 29, 2016
They Don’t Want The Best Outcome
Good job Republicans, you just shot yourself in the foot. Instead of trying to help save the United States from a Zika outbreak you have chosen to work against yourselves. I know you need to compromise in politics. Nothing would ever get done if compromises were not made, but are you serious? I am calling you out Republican Senators. Did you ever really think that those provisions would pass? You knew that this bill would never pass with those provisions. You did this to push your own asinine agenda.
I guess we are at the point where fighting for some ass-backwards policies is more important than the health of the people you claim to care about. You did this Republicans. Instead of spending 12 billion dollars in Iraq, which turned out to be worthless, let’s spend even a fraction of that on an issue that will have very meaningful consequences to the average citizen.
Get you head out of your ass and actually do what people elected you for.
Featured image is a screen grab from Twitter.
