An Ounce of Prevention
Posted: March 21, 2011 Filed under: John Birch Society in Charge | Tags: Republican Budget Cuts 32 CommentsBen Franklin was one of the most interesting, brilliant, and free spirited founders of the United States. His Poor Richard’s 
Almanac printed quips of advice. He actually got started as a young writer by writing advice columns for his brother’s newspaper. He was our country’s first “Dear Abby”. How many of us haven’t grown up hearing “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” My consulting firm–The Minerva Group–spent most of the 1980s teaching businesses and public organizations how to build quality in rather than rely on faulty inspection to sort out mishaps. One of the biggest reasons this is important is cost savings. If you’re in manufacturing, mistakes turn into expensive scrap. If you’re in services, you waste human energy and frequently irritate customers. When I consulted for the Air Force during the first Gulf War I was frequently reminded by the Colonels I worked with that their mistakes could cost lives. Why is it the Republicans have forgotten this lesson in the rush to be stingier than thou?
Suzy Khimm writes for Mother Jones. Her latest article called “Death by a Single GOP Cut” illustrates the medical and public health implications of underfunding immunizations among other initiatives.
In the past year, California has experienced the worst whooping cough outbreak in more than 50 years, an epidemic that has killed 10 infants and resulted in 6,400 reported cases. But even as the state’s public health officials have struggled to curb the disease, Republicans in Congress have proposed slashing millions in federal funding for immunization programs. Public health advocates warn that these cuts threaten efforts across the country to prevent and contain infectious and sometimes fatal diseases. And they add that lower vaccination rates could eventually result in more outbreaks that endanger public health at a major cost to taxpayers.
The House GOP’s 2011 budget would chop $156 million from the Centers for Disease Control’s funding for immunization and respiratory diseases. The GOP reductions are likely to hit the CDC’s support for state and local immunization programs, the agency’s ability to evaluate which vaccines are working, and its work to educate the public about recommended vaccines for children, teenagers, and other susceptible populations. The CDC especially focuses on serving lower-income families who receive vaccines at state and local health offices and community health clinics, rather than a private doctor’s office.
There’s another old saying that goes like this: “Pennywise and Pound foolish”. Ezra Klein borrowed that one to quip on more GOP cost cutting antics.
There are three categories of spending in which cuts lead to more, rather than less, spending down the line, says Alice Rivlin, former director of both the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. Inspection, enforcement and maintenance. The GOP is trying to cut all three.
There’s a war on common sense going on in this country. It’s based in some fairly crazy ideology that appears to appreciation inefficiency and cost run ups rather than pooling a country’s resources to achieve a good outcome. Klein’s post is just full of examples where eliminating government programs will lead to bad outcomes. Just think about all the outbreaks of e coli or food poisoning just out there waiting to happen because some company would rather cut corners than do reliable inspections, buy or fix equipment, or hire people that are trained and know what they’re doing? The best example of the lunacy is the proposed cuts to the agency responsible for tsunami monitoring Republicans suggested days before a tsunami hit both California and Hawaii. Early warning systems and method of prevention save lives and a lot of money.
Let’s face it. Many elected officials would rather gamble with our lives and our safety than admit that government can do some good things. They’d rather privatize everything let us all beware when we’re forced into using the product or service. I have no idea where this insanity comes from but I’d like it to stop now. I don’t mind paying taxes when it goes to a good cause. What I object of to paying for are sweetheart, no bid deals to big corporations that mark up everything to achieve obscene profits and donate huge sums to politicians to get them to overlook their abusive practices. One of these days we’ll go back to appreciating public goods like education, interstate highways, and immunization programs. I would’ve thought that the levee failure during Hurricane Katrina would have provided some lessons on what happens when you underfund the maintenance and construction of projects in the public interest. This is just more hard core libertarian nonsense that needs to return the pages of Atlas Shrugged and other bad fiction like studies produced by the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine.
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Well, this helps me remember there are those worse off than me as I sit here feeling sorry for myself with tonsillitis.
wow. they didn’t get your tonsils in the 1950s? How’d you manage that? Hope you get better quickly!
Take care and rest.
Thanks you two. 🙂
Yeah, I had plenty of colds when I was a kid(even had pleurisy once), but they never got my tonsils. Just lucky, I guess.
Hey kiddo, take care and rest. I’m over 60 and still have my tonsils – and my appendix which was the other thing they used to yank out – and while I still get cold etc, I’m healthier than most. You need lots of fluids and rest.
The republicans have health insurance so they will no worry about the cut in immunizations programs. All of their have health care too so they all think it is a waste of money. They don’t associate with the common folks. Cuts to “respiratory programs” also means cuts to TB evaluations and treatment.
Not to mention Resistant TB strains and the fact that the strains are a big danger to those with immune health related illnesses.
Well with all those sick people comes the need for medication they have to buy…I wonder how many of those GOP in CA have gotten funds from Pharma Co?
There’s a war on common sense going on in this country.
This should be part of Hillary’s next campaign bumper stickers. A better synopsis of our current situation could not have been made. Kudos Dak.
Hillary 2012
I agree.
We were experiencing more widespread outbreaks of illness, and tainted food before the conversation had ever turned to cuts in government at any level.
I doubt the problem is something regulation can help or hurt as much as is the concentration of production and distribution in mega agribusiness. We need more competition in this area, and this would give incentive to quality, and isolate problems to smaller markets.
I think you’re getting gratuitous in your inclusion of the John Birch Society, and slamming of libertarianism, but oh well. 😛 I still enjoy reading your stuff anyway.
I completely support the idea of civil liberties and that government needs to stay out of my private life, but there are public goods and services that are necessary. Also, there are markets that don’t work well when they’re subjected to the profit motive. There’s also some goods and services that are subject to economies of scale. My problem with libertarians is the cookie cutter approach to each market and the assumption that private businesses are any more efficient as a government entity. There are some things that need to be left to the market. There are some things that are too important to be left to the market. There are markets that fail from too much government intervention and there are markets that fail from too little government intervention. The challenge is finding out which goods and services go into which category. Most basic agricultural commodities don’t need government interference unless there’s health issues or markets have been overrun my monopolies. More than not, monopolies rent seek, they overrun government, and government fails the country by empowering monopolies. This problem is completely overlooked by the majority of libertarians.
There are also things that will not be profited by the private sector because it’s not profitable to do so. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be provided or only available to the extremely rich. Education falls into that category. It’s expensive to provide it and it’s not profitable to do so without government subsidy. Private businesses want at this because they want the government largess, not the mission itself. Privatization frequently serves the role of enriching a few stakeholders and disenfranchising the majority of them. This is very rarely discussed by libertarians also. Then there’s the complete insanity surrounding gold standards. That’s just one more way to screw up markets, yet you wouldn’t know that by talking to nutters like the Pauls. It’s one thing to keep the government out of private life. It’s completely another thing to let powerful business interests loot a country’s resources for private gain. That is frequently the real end goal of many libertarians. David Koch stands as one such monster. He’s also the first to take advantage of government handouts too.
There are also things that will not be profited by the private sector because it’s not profitable to do so. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be provided or only available to the extremely rich. Education falls into that category
Excellent
It’s funny that you call Paul a “nutter” when everything he wants which is likely to happen is also something you likely agree with.
Actually, it’s depressing. But oh well.
The one thing that helps always is hand washing, sing happy birthday and get those bubbles going, to stay healthy.
We do the ABC’s in my house. Not that it seems to help. Every year, twice a year, the kids get flu. Thankfully my prerequisite winter/spring flu has already come and gone. Next year I’m gonna get my 13 year old vaccinated because he always seems to get scary sick when flu season hits.
cwaltz – I get sick at least once a year and it’s scary for my kids because I run temperatures around 104 degrees. They always want to rush me to a hospital. I tell them to leave me alone and leave me to sweat it off as long as I’m still lucid. I used to get the vacine, but noticed when I did I got sicker after the shot. Not sure why, however I haven’t gotten the shot for the last few years and have not gotten sick at all. My kids (who are now adults) rarely get sick. Woman Voter’s advice is sound. And don’t worry too much.
More unions agree to concessions ahead of new Wisconsin law
More unions in Wisconsin have agreed to impose concessions on their members in exchange for preserving automatic dues deductions and other interests of the labor bureaucracy before a new law, stripping workers of collective bargaining rights, goes into effect.
http://tinyurl.com/4z24jys
If the sign these contracts now, before the law takes effect, the unions get thier automatic dues…scew the workers of course.
dang tags! I’m sorry for all the bold!
I’ve got your back!!
Contract agreements are most often voted on by membership. There probably was a plurality that wanted it this way.
Watching the cuts the Republicans are making convinces me that they read no scientific or historical literature at all. We keep hearing them quote the Bible alot though. I suggest they supplement their reading material with a little history.
One of the things monopolization has brought has been the conglomeration of all our media outfits so that they serve their Corporate masters instead of the public. Thank god they are going by the wayside thanks to the internet. Lets all make sure they keep their hands off of that.
We keep hearing them quote the Bible alot though….
Indeed…but it’s always from the Old Testament. How can you love Jesus so much , but never quote him?
To take one case, the arguments for food inspection are based upon the idea that the government actually does inspection.
However, that isn’t the case. The FDA inspects an average food processing plant once every 10.5 years. (http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=328618)
Even when violations are found, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything will happen. The peanut butter plant that originated a salmonella outbreak in 2008 hadn’t been inspected in about five years even though hundreds of violations had been found the last time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_Corporation_of_America
The government might do some things well, but it does most things horribly and people still trust it with an almost childlike faith.
Correction: They hadn’t inspected it in eight years despite the numerous violations.
I don’t think people trust it. I also don’t think they do everything incredibly well. This is especially true when they are defunded and political hacks are put in charge of things. FEMA under Dubya comes to mind. The question is there ways to make it more efficient and work? Gore was put to task on this during his tenure as VP and he streamlined many agencies and made agencies like FEMA work well. Dubya came along with his kill the beast attitude and ruined and crippled FEMA. The deal is to figure out what the government can and should do, then find efficient ways of tasking it with that. It shouldn’t be funding religious activities, as an example. It should fund immunizations and family planning. Do immunizations and family planning activities have to come from a government institution? No. It can be accomplished through combination of state agencies and private entities.
It’s not an all or nothing choice.
Thought I posted this before –
I don’t think Gee Dubya was so much interested in killing the beast as he was in handing it out to his cronies.
You two are closer than you think: killing the beast IS handing it out to his cronies.
It’s a two for two deal 🙂
Yes. I think it’s a combination of both. The more they privatize things in the public interest, the more it enriches the already rich and powerful and the more it endangers consumers.
Right, and the more they privatize things in the public interest, the worse the public sector functions and then they can say it doesn’t work! get rid of it.Somehow when something doesn’t work in the Military, the answer is throw more money at it. But when something is struggling in the public sector, the answer is : give it even less money . Can’t we switch that out for a while to see how it goes?
The Charter school industry complex is a get out jail free card for government and education…once the public system is toast, the Charter school will falter…and then memory of government
educating the public will be fading …The wealthy don’t want to pay any taxes at all …that means what costs taxes, gotta go…if that means this country as we have known it goes as well…they are just fine with that
Privatization does not mean continuing government operations under different auspices, which is what most “privatization” amounts to.
Phony privatization would be better called “honestization,” since it’s more often than not the case that the government works hand-in-glove with the ruling class, and phony privatization only serves to make that obvious.