No, Trump Did NOT Cut Funding for the Centers for Disease Control

March 1, 2020 7:22am

This Chicago Tribune story is FALSE. It is one of many fake news stories that are circulating.

As is so typical, Democrats are lying about President Trump, and the propagandists in the so-called "news" media are amplifying those lies.

Many Democrats - and all Democrat candidates for President - have claimed that Donald Trump slashed the budget for the Centers for Disease Control, and that those irresponsible cuts are to blame for the COVID-19 Coronavirus spreading to the United States. But that is complete nonsense.

The Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health BOTH have had budget INCREASES during Trump's presidency. But Trump cannot be credited with those increases, however. He wanted Congress to cut CDC and NIH funding, but Congress increased funding instead. Trump did sign the budget into law, but that can't really be considered support for it.

From the debate stage, lying Mike Bloomberg said the U.S. is unprepared for the COVID-19 Coronavirus because Trump "defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC, so we don’t have the organization we need." NOT TRUE!

And lying Joe Biden said the Obama-Biden Administration increased the budget of the CDC and NIH, but Trump "wiped all that out" and "cut the funding for the entire effort.” ALSO FALSE!

Whether or not President Trump's response to the COVID-19 Coronavirus has been good or not is a matter of opinion. But to quote the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." The Democrats are entitled to their opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. That the so-called "news" media allows such provably false statements to go unquestioned is disgraceful.

Bloomberg is also lying in his advertising by making the charge that the U.S. is unprepared for the virus because Trump made “reckless cuts” to the CDC. That statement is false and therefore inappropriate. But at least that dishonesty is done in Bloomberg's paid advertising - a platform where candidates play fast and loose with the facts all the time.

If I know the Democrats are lying, why don't the "journalists" know? They do know. They just aren't going to let facts get in the way of a political attack on President Trump.

The dishonesty is disgraceful.

Fake news like this is everywhere. This particular fake news story is at https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/clarence-page/ct-column-trump-coronavirus-cdc-page-20200228-25n2oswzanbzdbvj27mhl5w77a-story.html?fbclid=IwAR0PZ27Q-UZLszdMzBlsB4MHLE8DcW-RHHvPmlYvosksN1p7ZrBnVgZxrNs