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Yesterday, @USATODAY posted an item rating as "TRUE" the Trumpist talking point that it& #39;s the Obama administration& #39;s fault that the national emergency stockpile was depleted. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/04/03/fact-check-did-obama-administration-deplete-n-95-mask-stockpile/5114319002/
USA">https://www.usatoday.com/story/new... Today does a lot of excellent reporting. This isn& #39;t it, and for 2 reasons
USA">https://www.usatoday.com/story/new... Today does a lot of excellent reporting. This isn& #39;t it, and for 2 reasons
1) The first and lesser problem with the "correction" is timeline. Obama left office January 2017. Medical supplies are not aircraft carriers, they don& #39;t require years of planning. Trump had three years to stockpile that could be bought in weeks. He chose not to. It& #39;s on him.
2) The second and greater problem with the @USATODAY "correction" is that it seems entirely unaware that stockpiling requires a congressional appropriation.
The post-2010 Tea Party Congresses refused to appropriate funds for stockpile despite frequent and urgent Obama requests
The post-2010 Tea Party Congresses refused to appropriate funds for stockpile despite frequent and urgent Obama requests
EG about 90 minutes before @USATODAY posted its dodgy correction, @propublica posted this detailed story about how the overseeing subcommitee of the House Appropriations Committee again & again refused stockpiling requests https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus">https://www.propublica.org/article/u...
Key line from @propublica story: " Had Congress kept funding at the 2010 level through the end of the Obama administration, the stockpile would have benefited from $321 million more than it ended up getting ... " https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus">https://www.propublica.org/article/u...
Proof of the essentially partisan nature of the starving of the stockpile by House Republicans 2011-2016: the moment they got a Republican president again, the imperative of budget restraint vanished - and House started funding the stockpile ABOVE Trump administration requests
The @propublica report is available to anyone who wants to understand what happened. https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus">https://www.propublica.org/article/u... Unfortunately, there are many in government and media who actively wish to PREVENT understanding. @USATODAY has unfortunately helped with that understanding-prevention
