Wanna know why half-a-billion dollars in pandemic preparation funds were cut from the president's stimulus package?

[House Appropriations Committee chairman David] Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse… Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans — led by Maine Senator Susan Collins — aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

Goddamn Republican Party! Always trying to kill us with one of the Four Horsemen or other.

Hmmmm… Too bad we don't have a rival political party that we could vote into a super majority in Congress so that Republican schemes like killing programs that save human lives get derailed.

I think I'd call them the Cratodems.