The Nation's John Nichols points out that during the debate over President Obama's economic recovery plan, conservatives attacked House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey's (D-WI)
inclusion of $900 million for pandemic flu prevention as wasteful spending. Writing in the Wall Street Journal in February, former Bush adviser Karl Rove cited the flu preparation spending as an example of the
"disturbing" "new spending programs" included in the legislation. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) fumed about the flu spending, asking, "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill?
No, we should not."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D, after a fashion-NY) told the New York Post that "
all those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the
flu pandemic, they're all out."
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