The Big Picture

“America will never be a socialist nation,” President Trump proudly proclaimed in his 2019 State of the Union Address. Sadly, as each day of this coronavirus pandemic wears on, these words seem to grow less and less prophetic. Just as we think we’ve reached our capacity for government intrusions into the daily lives of Americans, we’re reminded that we may not have even scraped the surface.

Famed Chicago School economist Milton Friedman had many strong opinions over the course of his lifetime. Many of those shaped the way we look at the world and the way we look at the economy. However, Friedman also dedicated a good amount of his time to criticizing government health policy, particularly the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Welcome to FreedomWorks Foundation’s twenty-first regulatory review of 2019! Our Regulatory Action Center proudly updates you with our favorite tidbits from the swamp. We want to smash barriers between bureaucracy and the American people by delivering regulatory news straight to FreedomWorks activists. Check back in two weeks for the next edition.

In a recent subcommittee hearing with appropriations committee, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the CDC, testified to several representatives regarding the budgetary affairs of the CDC. Throughout the hearing, Dr. Frieden talked at length about the various projects the CDC had been involved with recently, particularly regarding the Zika and Ebola viruses.

It’s no secret that taxpayer money is wasted by funding projects and programs that are absolutely ridiculous.

Despite the scaremongering and whining from the Left, the inability for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to deal with Ebola has nothing to do with money.

A progressive organization is out with a new issue ad blaming congressional Republicans for the Ebola outbreak. In the disgusting minute-long ad, titled "Republican Cuts Kill," the Agenda Project Action Fund uses clips of Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KY), urging more spending cuts to the federal budget. It also features footage of Obama administration officials discussing budget cuts and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) purported inability to deal with viral outbreaks.

The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) is on the front lines to defend the U.S. from a possible Ebola epidemic but serious questions remain about the competency of the organization.